Yesterday I sat in church next to my wife (after the four children were safely in their classes) and got to listen to my friend preach.  He did well.  So I told him so.  Turns out he had been run ragged in the 24 hours leading up to the service.  I assured him that it had not shown in the preaching anywhere near the extent to which he had felt it.  He responded with gratitude and something along these lines – I determined this would not happen to me again, but I need to revisit the situation.

As you know there are long lists of details that go into a Sunday morning service at church.  All it takes is one person to be away, or a series of minor crises, and suddenly a lot of the last minute hassles can fall on the preacher’s shoulders.  Take a few moments and evaluate yesterday’s preaching experience.  Were there distractions at home, at church, in the last few hours?  Did you find yourself dealing with issues relating to music, seating, announcements, unlocking the church, preparing communion, notice sheets, hymn books, projectors, lights, greeting people, seating people . . . several of these, all of these?

The time to make sure your final preparation is not crowded or distracted is not next Sunday morning.  It is now.  Who can be enlisted to shoulder burdens so that you are free to preach?  Or if someone else is preaching, what can you do to free them for the task?  The New Testament knows nothing of the one-man ministry models so many churches fall into.  Take stock of your duties, divide them into categories and delegate them away.  Ideally, try to find people with a passion for the things you don’t have passion for, but end up doing anyway.  Some people are passionate about selecting songs, welcoming guests, organizing seating, doing the “children’s talk” if your tradition still has that, etc.  Praise God for people with different passions.  Pray for people with different passions.  Take stock of yesterday, revisit the situation before it’s too late . . . again.