It’s the last Sunday of the year.  It’s the season of gym-joining, diet-starting, habit-kicking and so on.  As I come to the end of the year I tend to do my personal review in November.  I ask myself two questions to kick-start my thinking process.  1 – Am I doing the most strategic ministry open to me?  2 – Am I growing?  I find these two questions help me review, evaluate and reconfigure ministry for the next year.

But there is something about the end of a year.  It’s good to look back and work through the year. Recall the highlights and lowlights, the challenges, the surprises, the encouragements.  As a preacher think back to favorite series or sermons, critical moments in the pulpit and out, evidence of lives being changed that may have been stark or subtle.  Give thanks.  It is too easy to march on to the drum beat of urgency and not take the time to give thanks to the God who has made every breath possible.

There is also something about the first of the first of a new year.  Look ahead to 2008 as you currently see it.  Pray for the year, for the ministry, for the people.  Be specific wherever you can.  This will be a critical year for some people.  This could be a vital year for the church.  This is a vital year for the church worldwide, just as every second is a vital moment (two people die every second, most go to a lost eternity).  Pray for a renewed passion for preaching, for ministry, for global missions.  God has put you where you are to make a difference in your corner of the harvest field and to make a difference in the harvest field.

And today, as we preach, we have perhaps a unique opportunity to stir reflection and gratitude for the year now ending, and also infuse passion for the year ahead!

For many preachers life is lived in reverse.  People take Sunday off and come to church.  It’s no day-off for us.  People finish work and come home in the evening, but sometimes we have to preach, teach or lead then.  And the season of relaxed family time easily becomes the busy and draining season for preachers – ie Christmas.  So, since I have a whole week until I have to preach, I will be taking a couple of days off from the blog.  Let’s be honest, you wouldn’t check it on Christmas Day anyway, would you?

There are always reasons to quit.  This is true in anything you pursue.  Sport, music, hobby, fitness, work, ministry, marriage.  Anyone who has ever been successful at anything has had to overcome numerous opportunities to quit.  How true is that in preaching?  There are few things that can compare with it – how important it is, how much people need it, how much you give both in preparation and presentation, how emotionally and physically draining it can be, how open to criticism you become, how relentless the schedule can feel, how exacting the standards are in peoples’ minds for every other area of your life.  To give the Lord our best as preachers we must exhibit a tenacious relentlessness.

The temptation to quit may always be lingering in the background, but for various reasons, good and bad, many of us would not simply quit.  Perhaps it’s a little like marriage among some Christians a couple of generations back.  A marriage could go very sour, but divorce was considered so inappropriate that couples would live out a “Christian divorce” – two separate lives lived under one roof for the sake of appearance.  That’s a danger for us as preachers.  When the pressures build, as they do so regularly, so do the temptations.  Temptations to quit may be rejected.  But temptations to half quit are an ever present danger.

When the schedule is tight and you are drained emotionally and physically, pulled in numerous directions, don’t half quit on your preparation.  It may seem tempting to not really study the text, to short-circuit all exegesis.  When Sunday is rapidly approaching and your energy is low, don’t half quit on sermon shaping.  Don’t just go with your study notes, but try to think through your audience and their needs, think through the best way to communicate this passage to them.  When you go through the post-sermon emotional roller-coaster that many preachers feel so often, don’t half quit.  Don’t make decisions that will undermine your subsequent ministry because of how you feel at that moment.  When you are on the receiving end of unfair criticism or unjustifiable sniping, don’t half quit.  Don’t steel your heart against the people you minister to so that by not loving them they can’t hurt you.  When you love you get hurt, but love anyway.

I’m not saying anything about rest, responsibilities with family, etc.  I’m not saying sacrifice yourself to the point of burnout in an attempt to be spiritual.  There’s all sorts of appropriate balances to wisely employ in ministry.  But those are for another post.  All I’m suggesting today is that preaching is no easier than most other things you might pursue in life, and in many ways it is harder.  To be the best you can be, to give the best you can give, you must be doggedly relentless.  Don’t quit.  And maybe more importantly, don’t half quit.

It is too easy to get caught up in present ministry and future plans, but forget past blessings. As a preacher, whether you have only just begun or have been ministering for decades, you are not a self-made preacher. The truth is that people have marked you. Your ministry now is partly the result of past investment and example from others.

Let’s take half an hour and prayerfully go back over those people who have marked our lives for ministry. Perhaps you could take a piece of paper and list people that invested in you, or were an example to you. Make a brief note summarizing their influence. Take some time to give thanks to God for His work through them. Not only will this exercise allow for gratitude toward God, but it may also prompt an expression of gratitude toward others who have blessed you (who are still on earth), and a renewed passion to press on in your ministry. I suppose we could say that each of us is surrounded by our own personal cloud of witnesses!

Think of your early exposure to preaching and church ministry – perhaps a preacher who also noticed you and cared about you. Think about those who have invested time in you during your formative years, perhaps some were preachers, but took the time to pour into you. Think about those who opened doors for you to preach, to attend Bible school, to take on your first ministry role. Think about the trainers, perhaps in the local church, or perhaps in college or seminary (if only there were more trainers in churches, but let’s be thankful for both!) Think about inspiring examples you heard at key events, or regularly at certain stages of life. Think about formative books that shaped you in this area. Think about key prayer partners who believed in you. Think … make a note … give thanks … press on!

Just to let you know that we’ve added a new category in the menu to the right.  If you click on “Preacher’s Personal Life” you will be given a list of all the posts related to this vital subject.  Hope that is helpful.