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The Life of a Pastor

Do you ever take time to think about the life/job of your pastor? For 65 years I sat in church and reaped the reward of countless well-thought-out sermons, meaningful worship where the words of the hymns matched the message, organized Bible studies, and a myriad of other benefits that I gave little thought to. It was not until I went through two years of classes to be authorized as a lay leader that I began to think about the preaching life.

No other modern public speaker does what the preacher tries to do. Attorneys have bagged evidence and glossy photos to pass around. A teacher has a Smart Board and books or eBooks. A politician has speech writers and media consultants. All a preacher has is words. Climbing into the pulpit without props or sound effects, the preacher speaks to people who are used to being communicated with in very different ways. Most of the messages in our culture are sent and received in 30 seconds or less, yet a sermon requires sustained and focused attention.

The congregation plays a major part in the sermon formation. They are the body of people for whom and to whom the pastor speaks. They share conversations, memories, experiences and hopes — the fabric from which a sermon is made. They are the community in whose midst the pastor stands.

I also believe that every sermon begins and ends with God; every sermon is the creation of God’s living word as well as the creation of the pastor and the congregation. All three participate in the making of a sermon, with the pastor as the designated speaker. The sermon becomes a place for believers to explore their common experiences before God.

Preaching is an act of faith. The movement of the sermon, like the movement of Christ in the world, is meant to lead from doubt to faith. The sermon knocks on God’s door, unsure whether anyone is home, but when the door is opened and we are led inside, doubt becomes moot. Our host takes it from us and hangs it in the closet. The living word of God is there to touch us and to heal us because God is in it.

Pastors have different routines for writing their sermons, but many I have spoken with read and read and read the text looking for God in it; God at this particular moment in time. It’s a process of discovery. Most pastors don’t want to scatter pearls of wisdom from the pulpit. They want to discover something fresh. They want to haul it into the pulpit and show others what God has shown them.

Next in the writing process comes a period of rest. It’s time to take the text to heart and let it simmer for a while. It’s time to daydream, to whittle, to pray. This is the gestation period of the sermon. It’s time to wait for the stirring of the Holy Spirit. What emerges usually is a connection between the text and the life of the world. It’s a sermon that leads both the preacher and the congregation into the presence of God, a place that cannot be explained but only experienced. It’s where we all go with thoughts, images, emotions that change and grow with us and help us continue to grow as the process of discovery goes on.

Perhaps the delivery of a sermon is a form of prayer, an act of self-offering in which the pastor stands exposed before God and the congregation, seeking a connection with both. Everything a pastor has done follows them into the pulpit when they preach. The way they stand there, the way they hold themselves, what they do with their hands, where their eyes are focused—all of these gestures preach sermons of their own, as well as what is said by the words from their mouths.

Hopefully we all know conscientious pastors who do not take themselves too seriously because something does happen between the pastor’s lips and the congregation’s ears that is beyond prediction or explanation. The same sermon sounds entirely different to someone in the first row of the church and someone in the side pew.

There is more going on here than anyone can say. Preaching is an art. It’s alchemy where rocks become diamonds under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It’s a process of transformation for the congregation and pastor alike as the ordinary details of everyday life are translated into the extraordinary elements of God’s ongoing creation. Wherever God’s Word is we know that God is there too—tuning our ears and thawing out our hearts and making us His people who speak and live His words of life. It’s one more thing for which we can say Thanks Be To God.

 

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