I use a system I call "planned neglect"—I plan to neglect everything else until my studying is done. I set aside Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to prepare for my Sunday messages. Not until I have accomplished what I need to on those days do I then stop and care for other matters. I have an assistant and two secretaries who help shield me from the affairs of a large ministry that would deluge me and rob me of my study time. Of course, I am available when I need to be.Thoughts? Especially interested in thoughts from pastors....
I realize all pastors do not have a personal assistant or a large staff to share the responsibilities of their ministry. Neither did I in the early years of my ministry. But my commitment to studying the Word has never changed. If other details take my time, I simply put in longer hours that week. Our goal as pastors is not to do all the work of the ministry ourselves, but to equip our people for ministry (cf. Eph. 4:11-16). We can only accomplish this effectively through preaching based on thorough study. So I know that time spent in preparation will result in more sharing of my load by a maturing church.
Monday, June 06, 2011
Guarding your preparation time?
What do you think of this? John MacArthur was answering the question How do you guard your preparation time? Here is his response:
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10 comments:
You have got to be kidding me....
Man... just think how much preparation he could do if he could block all those distracting people out of his life.
-Alan
I guard my prep time too, but not like that. I also have a full time job and go to college. I really feel that if one cannot prepare their lecture/sermon in less that 6 hours (preferably way less) then they are doing something wrong.
I translate the passage or even just read it in Greek (translate fully from Hebrew), look at the relevant historical information, regularly read primary and secondary sources, and then sometimes I'll make a syntactical diagram from which to outline the talk, unless it is topical. That's it. I then pray and try throughout the week to follow Jesus so that I can teach from knowledge and experience.
Alan
That might be the title of his next book, How To Keep People Out Of The Way So You Can Minister To Them.
Geoff
I agree. I used to prepare two 45 minute expository sermons a week while working a full-time job and with a family of ten to care for. When men talk about spending 20+ hours a week preparing to speak for less than two hours, I have to wonder what is taking so long?
Brian
I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.
Arthur,
This is a sad thing.
Sadly, my Paul used to be the same way. It begins out of a genuine love for the Word. But, somewhere along the way it seems like teaching the truth trumps ministering as the Bible tells us to. I can say this without any disrespect for MacArthur, because we used to have these same priorities.
Bethany
Art,
I teach at a Christian private school and give 5, 45 minute lectures a day (four entirely different subjects)! I prep for maybe 10 minutes a day...total.
It is seriously baffling to me. My pastor home schools his children, is a full time vocational pastor (I know your problems with the whole idea...but he does the whole shebang, though our whole church is full of teachers, preachers, hospital visitors and real Jesus disciples), cab driver, a college professor (he taught Greek to Roman Catholic monks and taught research and writing to protestant theology students this past year), and he is working on his PhD. On top of that, until last year he was the local Methodist campus minister.
Bethany from MO, I really miss your blog, I pray for your family, and think of all of you often. I hope your new home worked out better for you than the old farmhouse, and hope Paul was able to get full time with UPS, and most of all I hope you are all doing well, you have such lovely children, you are both so blessed. Nice seeing you in blogland :)
Bean
I think it shows that at the least, the sermon is viewed by many as the most important thing in all of Christianity, and at most, the sermon itself is worshipped. My experience anyway.
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