I heard a snippet of a Barak Obama stump speech he gave today. He said that not only was he going to give more money to education, but he was going to go to schools to see what they were doing with that money. He was going to check to see if the students were doing their work and learning. "If they aren't, we're going to have a talk!"
Two options. Either Mr. Obama is pandering to voters (read: lying) or he has no idea how to govern a country. The President of the most powerful nation in the world should not be touring individual schools to check up on their effectiveness. I'm pretty sure there are more important issues to deal with than the nice teachers at Daniel Webster Elementary School.
OK, maybe he meant that someone in his administration would go around to the schools, not that he would himself. But that's not what he said. And it seems to me that presidential candidates shouldn't get in the habit of saying things they don't mean. Doesn't exactly build the trust level.
I had breakfast with my former student this morning - the one who now pastors a church here in Phoenix. In the booth behind us were two men having a conversation, and I quickly figured out that one of them was a pastor. A third guy came along who knew them and he stood at their table for awhile talking with them. In the course of that conversation the pastor mentioned that he writes his sermons on Saturday.
It was all I could do to stay seated. I wanted to get up, turn around and give the guy the verbal thrashing of his life.
Two options. The first is that he puts it off until Saturday and has convinced himself that's acceptable. It is not! Preparing a sermon 24 hours (or less) before you preach it is disrespectful of God and his people. No preacher can do the appropriate amount of textual study and thoughtful reflection on God's Word on that time table. At least as important, he can't let that text and his planned delivery of it develop, mature in his heart. Sermons are like wines; they need time to age, to develop before they're delivered. A sermon written on Wednesday will be on the preacher's mind for the next three days, and as he thinks about it, reflects on the truth he will deliver, it matures. His delivery will be more skillful and more passionate for the time he spent with it, whether his development of it is conscious or not.
Studying for (or whatever we would call what he's doing on this timetable) and preparing a sermon on Saturdays is ministerial sloth.
The other option: his schedule is too full with other responsibilities to allow for spending time during the week on sermon prep. In which case he suffers from the problem at the other end of the spectrum from sloth; he is too busy, and the urgent is displacing the important. Paul told Timothy, "Preach the Word." He never commanded him to attend committee meetings, design promotional pieces or have a counseling ministry. The Apostles delegated the ministry to the widows because they could not, would not "neglect the ministry of the Word of God" (Acts 6:2). If a preacher is too busy to do his sermon prep during the week...he's too busy.
There's a lot more ego gratification in running around doing things that "need" doing. It makes a pastor feel essential, important. Studying God's Word and writing well-honed sermons is essential and important.
Any month that has a Friday the 13th also has a Wednesday the 25th.
One of Hewlitt Packard's first ideas was an automated urinal flusher.
North Dakota has never had an earthquake.
1 comment:
Forgive me for intruding but I was surfing the web and following links from other blogs and found myself browsing your older posts.
One thing I'm noticing is that your writing comes across as pretty judgmental of others at times and especially when it comes to how a church should function.
I know several pastors who put off crafting their actual sermon until the end of the week not because they are lazy or too busy but because they have a rhythm of studying and praying during the week as the flow of thought comes together in their minds. Then they finally put it all together and 'write their sermon' on a Friday or Saturday. It works well for them and certainly does not deserve your hunger to give them 'the verbal thrashing of their life'.
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