Since changing to the new church earlier in the year I have been sitting on the sidelines as far as some of my giftings are concerned. One in particular is preaching.
In some ways the absence has been healthy for my, not that the load at the old church was overwhelming, rather it has given me pause to appreciate just how powerful preaching as a ministry can be.
When preaching week in week out my experience is either becoming very enthusiastic about the next week, or becoming dried out by the task. The difference doesn't seem to be based in my attitude to the task, or how connected to God I was feeling but rather in how much preparation has gone into it.
Often I've been chatting with a group of pastors and a common thread of conversation is how much they dislike the task of preaching and how it seems to be a long and horrible labor to birth their messages. With some (false) modestly, I would casually drop into the conversation that I usually wrote my sermons on Saturday morning and I didn't have too much of an issue with it.
Really that was a half truth. Many times I have left writing my message until the last moment, but during the week or so leading up to it I have already chosen a theme, I have been collecting illustrations and newspaper articles and ideas have been swirling around in my head.
It's this sort of preparation that makes or breaks a message.
For my mind, there is little excuse for a pastor or speaker to get up in front of a group of people and not know what they are about to say, to not be prepared or to believe that the Spirit of God will fill their mouth with words because they are the anointed one for the day.
The challenge for me has been to balance preparation with hearing from God, but that is just another part of the preparation isn't it?