Shaking The Rust Off

It's been well over a year.

Yep.

I'm on the hook for the sermon in the main services at our church this weekend.

It's a laborious process for me, largely because it isn't the only work-related responsibility I have. I mean, when the teaching pastor gives the sermon it's part of the job. Wednesday/Sunday. It's right there in the job description. For associates, well, it's an add-on to an already busy getting-ready-for-the-fall workdays.

So, it'll be another 20 or so hours of study, thought, prayer, conviction and planning. How can it be fresh and real to others if it isn't fresh and real to me, right?

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to have the opportunity. It stretches me. And I'll have fun doing it. Really.

So, if I seem a little distracted and preoccupied this week...

...it's because there'll be a lot of processing going on.

Like I said, I haven't done this in well over a year. But as a seminary professor once told me, "Sermon preparation is like a gas. It expands or contracts to whatever space you have allotted for it. Put people before paperwork. And Sunday at 9AM is coming whether you study 20 hours or not. Just prepare as best you can, and draw on the Holy Spirit. He's the teacher anyway."

Good advice.

Now if only I can take it.