Here are a few reflections from my four-week sermon series on leadership.  These thoughts are primarily focused upon the task and art of preaching.

  • Knowing what I would be preaching on in the coming weeks actually gave me a “box” to put various ideas, illustrations, Scriptures, etc…  While I may not have used a lot of that material, there was comfort in having a place for these items.
  • Similarly, I found my reading was more profitable as well.  That is, there was often correspondence between what I was reading and what I was preaching on.  This may not always be true, but there were several times that I would stumble across a thought or passage citation that connected with other thoughts.
  • The sermons I preached in this leadership series were a little different in starting point.  I am more comfortable and probably a better preacher when I preach expository sermons, but there are times when topical or textual sermons are appropriate and/or needed.  So, in that regard, it doesn’t hurt to practice and work at preaching in a manner that I am unaccustomed to doing.  My main concern was that I not force a text to say something that it doesn’t – I think I was successful in this regard.
  • Preaching was fun.  It’s not that that hasn’t been true, but I felt a joy in preaching that I am not sure I had before.
  • I thought I might be relieved when I was done, exhausted even.  I actually had a very different reaction:  Last Thursday, when I might have been doing sermon prep, I found myself feeling aimless and sad.  I didn’t immediately make the connection, but I was missing preaching.  I am glad that I will preaching again the second and third week of August.
  • I now see in a much fuller way how preaching God’s Word fulfills my calling as a pastor and a leader – this is a very good discovery for sure.  It is not just a task or item on my to do list.  It is my calling, so that I can rightly be called “lil’ preacher” (affectionately) as one of the elders at the church does.