The Church Answers Podcast
Three Significant Challenges Pastors Experience Every Week, Part 1: The Challenge of Regular Sermon Preparation
Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. Welcome to the Church Answers podcast. You know what I almost did, Jess? What I almost did is when Alana, our podcast producer, tells me to smile at the end because she said, "I don't smile a lot." And you and Sam do smile a lot and art does. I don't, you three boys picked up your mom's smile because I'm just this serious guy that never smiles apparently. And so she said, "Can you please smile at the end of the podcast so we can take some screenshots and maybe use that on social media and other places when we talk about these podcasts?" And I almost started just grinning at the beginning. You know, one of my cheesy grands is really fake. I said, "No, that comes at the end, so I'm not going to do that." Just correct me, Jess. Remember, the older I get, get ready to put the pillowcase on me. I would rather you not smile than do your fake cheesy smile. I'll take that version. I know. That's who I am. That's who I am. Thank you for being a part of the Church Answers podcast. Some of you are on YouTube watching this. We thank you and thank you for watching us. Many of you are on an audio podcast and wherever you're, whatever your app is, hey, give us a rating, review, subscribe, wherever you are. Get the word out. This is a ministry to our audience. And it's always done so in such a way that our sponsor lets us say a few words about what they do and then they step aside so this can be a ministry. And the sponsor is Chaney and Associates, the accounting firm for the Church, the accounting firm that's in over 1,100 churches. I've said this in previous podcast, I chose Chaney in this particular niche to to be our partner. We don't just go out and say here we need to get sponsors. We've got, we've tried to find these sponsors that are aligned with our values at Church Answers that love the Church. And that's what Chaney does. That's what Steve Chaney, the founder and CEO, does. So you need to check out Chaney Associates. You can see it in the show notes and you can find out all that they do as an accounting firm, as a bookkeeping firm for your Church. Okay, just we're going to go on a topic that I think almost every pastor can identify. And we're going to do three challenges that pastors face every week. But this first one is the challenge of weekly sermon preparation. Just week after week after week. I remember taking a class at seminary. I don't think it was a preaching class but that is not relevant necessarily. But the professor said for those of you who are training for ministry, particularly if it's going to involve weekly pulpit ministry preaching, said you know anybody can work hard into one or two sermons that are good. But if you have to produce 40 to 50 or more sermons every week, not everybody can do that and they can't all be good. And so I heard that and I had my doubts about, you know, I think I can do this. But by the time I preached my 15th sermon in my Church, I knew that I could not. I could not produce this homeland, if you will, every time. So when I talk to you about challenges, what comes to your mind in weekly sermon preparation? What's one of the challenges that you're facing for the personality of Yes Rainer? Every pastor will have different ones. Right, right. I think that's important to note. I'm going to be talking about my perspective because you know something I always talk about is to different people in the Church, different ministry leaders. Sunday's always coming and there's always a sermon needing and wanting to be preached, but Sunday's coming. And so it's not like, you know, if you don't finish it in time, you can just carry it over the next week. You always have to be prepared. And there is that pressure, that burden, but also that joy that comes with sermon prep. And how pastor sermon prep are completely different. You know, I, I'm more of a segmented kind of do my sermon prep and chunks. I typically break it in four parts and I do different things along the way from my research to my outline to my writing to my application. I write a outline to manuscript. I know some pastors do a full manuscript and some pastors like yourself just grab a back of an envelope and write down a few notes and you can go preach. It's not fair. It's not fair that you can do that. Where I spend hours, you spend minutes. So it's not exactly true. Now don't tell audience only spend minutes on the sermons. No, it's, it compared, where I spend hours, you spend minutes. So where I spend many hours, you spend many minutes. There's some truth to that. But it's all different. You know, I know one pastor, I've heard, at least I've heard this, is that this pastor sits down Friday morning and writes the sermon until it's complete. And as long as it takes. And so everyone's different. And so my perspective in sermon prep is maybe a little, a little bit different. But it is. It's, it's changed over the years. You know, I've been ministry for over 10 years, been regularly preaching for, for eight years. And I would say what, what's changed for me is the sermon prep has gotten easier, but the burden's gotten heavier. And it's a great statement. I feel like so the skill, the talent, no, talent's not the word, the skill, the, the, the ability to actually sermon prep has gotten easier. It's just, you know, you talk, it's a weekly grind. And you mentioned it like producing for lack of better words, you know, my heart in this. Coming up with the content, delivering that has become easier over, over the years. But where I found myself now, it's just feeling the burden of it a lot more. Just because the culture's changed rapidly over the past 10 years. I think people are hungry for more. It's just, it's a lot. It's a lot. So for me, the challenge is the work and there's a joy. There's a burden. But it's also connecting it to my church, church people. And so I have felt that from time to time. So that's, that's kind of my starting point, you know, is, is, it's, it's a burden. But it's a good burden. But the actual prep has gotten easier. Well, I've listened to you preach for as long as you have been preaching. I'm usually there on the third or fourth row and listening, I'll go to the 9am service. So I've, I've watched, I've watched you develop, I've watched you grow. I've watched the burden increase while the preparation process may be easier. I have also watched the burden increase. So I have a front row view, or if you will, a fourth row view, to what is taking place in your own preaching ministry. Now, to be fair, there are times I go to Bradenton and listen to your big brother, Sam, older brother, who is effective just like you in a different way. And I've watched him develop too. Here, here, here's one thing that I've noticed about your preaching. You more naturally these days connect it to what is really taking place. You can say culture, the lives of the people. Listen to your sermon is thoroughly expositional, thoroughly exegetical. But more and more, I walk away from your sermons after it's done, of course, I don't walk away during your sermons. I walk away from your sermons and I say, that's what the Bible says. And then that's what I need to know or do. Is that intentional? Or is it just part of the growth that you have had as you've preached more? Yeah, I think that's an area that I have worked at. You know, when I first started preaching, it was more like, I want to make sure that I'm communicating God's word accurately. And so I spent a lot of time just on study and I would communicate that study over the years. I feel like where God's changed my heart is the shepherding aspect of I do. When I'm sermon prepping, I think about the people in my church. I think about where are they? Where are they struggling with? You know, and obviously, pastoring, you you know the general heartbeat of your church. You know where there are highs and lows. And so how does this particular passage relate and connect to them? That burden, that challenge has grown. And so I feel like there's there's been seasons that everyone's in. And I think, you know, as you're growing into it, there's always going to be a challenge. I think there always should be a challenge with sermon prep too. I think it drives us to dependency on God. And I never want to walk on stage on my own power in an independent way. And so sermon prep to me is also gaining more dependence on God and through that process. And I think what's changed for me over the years too is just the passion. You know, I'm more excited to preach. What used to scare me so much was the delivery. Getting on stage and speaking, I don't really care to be a public speaker. That's not like my calling. Now, you know, it's less about the it's the passion and the sermon prep that makes the delivery a lot easier. And so where God's working on my own heart. And I tell typically what I find too is when I when there's a message that connects pretty widespread in my church, it's because God did a work on my own heart that week through that message. And so all these things, right? You're going into sermon prep. It's a challenge. You're burdened for your people. But you're also trying to say, God, what is this teaching me? There's heart change that's happening within your own life as a pastor. It's tough. You're walking through some things but at the same time it creates passion on Sunday mornings. All this though, I mean, you talk about repeating this week after week after week. It's a lot. It's a challenge. But I think, you know, especially for you pastors who's listening to this, let me remind you guys. There's a quote by Tozer. It's from the pursuit of God. I actually think it's like from the intro or prologue of the book. And he said in that book, he says, "My prayer is that my torch will burn just bright enough so that other men can light their torches from it." And so what has been good for me in sermon prep and walking through this challenge is praying that prayer. God just let my church torch just burn just bright enough so that other people can light their torch from it. And so where the challenge exists, the regular sermon prep, my encouragement is pray through it, become more dependent on God, ask God to change your heart and just let God give you the passion for it. You know what I wish I wish I'd all once made this into a three-part series. But there's some other things I want to talk about, weekly challenge. It's pastors too. Like the next episode that we have coming on is going to be about getting volunteers and leading volunteers. We'll talk about that ongoing challenge. No matter what size the church is in, that is a challenge. When you started the church at Spring Hill, your mother told me, she said, "If you want to keep preaching at other churches on the weekend, you do what God leads you to do. I'm going to either be at the church at Spring Hill or West Raidenton Church every week that I can." And so I made the decision, one, that I wanted to be with her and not on the road. And two, the opportunity, 40 weeks out of the year to be in your church and the rest of the time, to be in Sam's Church and to be under the preaching ministry and authority of my sons, that's something that I was not going to pass by. So I've been able to be that fourth row observer for some time because that's where I sit. Third row at Sam's Church, fourth row at your church, that has nothing to do with preferential treatment. I just go where your mom goes. And that's where she ends up going. We're going to go to the next episode and hope you'll be able to go there. And just, let me just mention this, one more one added thing. We're going a little over time, but so forgive me. When we recorded this, it was just a few days after the attempted assassination of former President Trump. And you know, what do you do in a sermon? You know, when something is so much on the minds of people, well, you did not put it in the sermon, but you led off with a prayer for our country or a prayer for you led off with a spiritual emphasis on the culture and what we're going through. Say I'm led off with a prayer for the country. And so you were able to integrate a cultural event and the sermon state as it was, if I recall. Actually, I changed it. Okay. I changed my whole introduction. Okay. I don't think I told you that. No, I didn't know what it was anyway. Hey, I hope you who are pastors have really taken benefit from this. If you're not a pastor, I hope you understand that this is a part of the life of a pastor and you need to pray for pastors. Pick up my book when the people pray. It's about praying 30 days for your pastor. Pick up that book and get that in your church. And there's a lot there about praying for the preaching of the pastor too. What we're going to talk about, the issue of volunteers, the weekly things that a pastor has to deal with, the challenge is not negative necessarily, but challenges one way or another. And we'll be talking about that in the episode. As always, thank you, Chaney and Associates. Thank you, Jess, for walking us through this. And we'll see you in the next episode as we continue to talk about the challenges pastors face every week. We'll see you then. You have been listening to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the Church Answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app.