mgpcpastor's blog

David Bailey draws on two years of pastoring and offers 11 tentative reflections.
Here are two:

• Intellect does not equal godliness. Nor lack of it. In fact, intellect is no barometer of godliness at all. Some of the smartest people I’ve met are some of the most foolish. And same with some of the less-intellectually-able people I’ve met. And vice versa. I hope that makes sense…
• One struggle for a pastor is to be relationally differentiated and personally integrated as a man following Jesus; whereas the constant temptation of his work is to relationally disengage (or overengage) and personally compartmentalise.

Thom Rainer lists ten things pastors don’t like about pastoring (and offers a quote about each from exasperated pastors:
Here’s three:

• Dealing with budgets and finance.
• Weddings.
• Business meetings.

Justin Buzzard offers some constructive thoughts dealing about when (not if) you’ve preached a ‘lousy sermon’.
The takeaways:

• Aim to preach the best sermon you can possibly preach each and every week. Swing for the fences. Aim to hit a home run. Play Big. The privilege of preaching is enormous and worthy of our best efforts. I’ve already transitioned out of my discouragement and I can’t wait to get back in the pulpit and preach my guts out this Sunday.
• Know that lousy sermons are inevitable. They will come. Sometimes they will come when you sort of expect it (like this last Sunday for me), other times they will come when you least expect it. And sometimes they will come when you expect it (like this last Sunday), but least want it (like this last Sunday, a big momentum Sunday for us).
• Remind yourself that you are not what you do. When you preach a lousy sermon that is the best time to remind yourself that you stand on Christ, not the unstable sand of preaching performance. Your identity rests in Christ, not in what you do for Christ. Embrace the way God wants to humble you through the experience of preaching a lousy sermon.
• Learn everything you can from your lousy sermons. In my case from last Sunday, I’ve noted three mistakes I made that I will do my best to not make again (1. Normally my sermons are arrows–they are clear and sharp, but this sermon was disjointed. 2. I tried to do too much in one sermon. 3. I was preaching without “the click” mentioned above). Specifically noting what went wrong is helping me as I prepare for this Sunday.
• Have fun. The preaching life is hard, but it’s also a lot of fun. Don’t get too serious about all this. Take God seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Your church and your city needs a preacher who can laugh at himself. If you want to keep at this thing for four or five decades (as I do), you need to pace yourself and make sure you’re having plenty of fun along the way. Lousy sermons are just part of the gig.