What a Pastor thinks of his Sermons

All alone on an island.  Well, maybe there are a few other people, but not very many.

I spend anywhere from 15-20 hours every week reading, writing, investigating, and foraging for a sermon.  I spend way more time thinking about the sermon.  If I'm not thinking about the sermon that I am preaching for the upcoming Sunday, I'm thinking about future sermons, or I'm watching TV, reading, or just observing life trying to find connections between the Word of God and life as we know it.  I pour my heart into it more than I do for most anything else.  I am, basically, always writing a sermon in my head.  It's a sickness and it's a great love.

The sermons that I write and preach affect me more than any other person.  I am pretty certain about that.  They change my behavior, attitudes, and actions.  They are forming me as a human being, parent, friend, husband, and citizen.

So then I preach the sermon in about 30 minutes to about 160 people, well less minus the children who leave during that time.  I post my sermons online and I have a few people that do actually listen to them.

That doesn't seem like many people...

Lately I have been hearing a lot of good feedback about my sermons.  No joke.  I got an email from Africa about a sermon on Leviticus.  I had lunch with an uber-cool twenty something that mentioned something I preached about a month ago.  I had a friend listen to my sermons on a super long road trip and he said I was actually good!  Shocking.  :)  I feel like my sermons are affecting people in a positive way.  That is a dream come true.  But...

I wish my sermons were heard by a lot more people.  I put so much work in to them and I think they really can help people understand God, His Kingdom, forgiveness, living life to the fullest.  I think my sermons can help people start to unpack their scars and bruises suffered from hurtful people.  I think my sermons capture some of God's incredible grace that can be completely life changing.  But I feel like the stage is too small.  And...

I feel my sermons help people to find out the truth in a world of lies.  Seriously.

Just a few days ago I was thinking about the book of Revelation.  Follow me.  It was written by John on the Island of Patmos.  He was an exile and was removed from much of society.  So he wrote down this vision that God gave him.  He sent it in a letter to 7 churches.  That's really not that many.  I have preached at like 7 churches in my life.  Not that big of a deal.

John's vision was and is way more important than my sermons.  He reveals so much about Heaven and the war that is raging.  Grace and hope are explained in his letter.

I wonder if John felt like God's gift of Revelation was wasted on a guy who was on an island without many people there.

Maybe it's not that I need a larger stage.  Maybe I just need to remain faithful, continue to write and deliver sermons, and walk where God is leading me.

By the way, my sermon this week for Easter is incredible.  I am really looking forward to getting to preach this one.  I can say that in humility because I also recognize when I preach stinkers.  And I recognize that the Holy Spirit is active when the living Word of God is being proclaimed (even by me).

Comments

Sheila said…
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, as it was an encouragement to me as my husband and I are lay pastors in a church of about 15 faithful people. We are called to be faithful, even when we don't see the results. Are you old enough to remember the Ray Boltz song "Thank You"? I so easily forget the LOOOOONG haul is what really matters.
April 4, 2012 at 7:42 PM
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