Few lay people understand the emotional pressure of the weekly sermon. If you feel a sermon went badly, it puts additional pressure on you for the next week. If you feel the sermon went well and you get a lot of positive response, it also puts pressure on you. Now you’ve raised the bar of expectations and you have to start all over again. I’ve heard of a number of pastors who have spoken of Sunday evening blues because no matter what you did today, it all starts again on Monday morning. People who follow the lectionary have the advantage of a set of Scriptures with which to work but also the challenge of trying to make 4 passages relate. Many just pick one and ignore the rest. Pastors who don’t follow the lectionary, have the challenge of choosing Scriptures and avoiding always picking on the same themes. Whichever way you go, it is a challenge and it is always there week after week.
There are a couple of suggestions that I would share that have helped me over the years. Many have suggested and I concur that it helps if you can look ahead. If two or three weeks ahead you can at least know the Scriptures and the general theme, it allows what homoletician Don Wardlaw calls time for the creative elves to work. Towards that end, it would be healthy to take your calendar and schedule a couple of hours at least once a month when you will brainstorm possible topics, Scriptures, etc. for the weeks ahead. You will be surprised at the pressure that relieves when you come to Monday morning. If you have a good colleague who would meet you for coffee and do that together, it would add to the fun. You are not writing sermons here, but simply getting a general direction in mind.
More tomorrow.
