It is starting to set in.
So we are in week two of senior pastor vacancy, with me at the helm of the ship, so to speak. Week one went off without a hitch. A couple of physical plant issues to address, but we have a great property team, and I pretty much left it to them to decide how to proceed. They did a terrific job. Last week I was able to have the rough draft of my sermon done on Monday, which left the rest of the week to making calls, doing some planning for the year, and some general administrative types of things. I met with our staff and gave them a pep talk. Everyone seemed to be doing pretty well last week.
Week two, however, is starting to bring a little more stress. The staff still seems to be doing fine, but I am feeling a bit of a pinch. It is Thursday, and no Sunday sermon. I have a few brief notes, but nothing that resembles a sermon. Now, in all fairness, with Ash Wednesday being yesterday, I had to prepare for that. We had two services yesterday, one in the morning and one in the evening. It was the first time we did a morning service. It went pretty well, with about twenty folks showing up who wouldn’t have been able to attend an evening service. I think had we scheduled it during the lunch hour, we may have had quite a few more. Then there was the “big” service last night. It was well attended and seemed to connect with folks, though I thought the sermon was a bit dry…
…which brings me back to today. It is Thursday and I need to get ready for Sunday. It is a familiar text, which you think would make the homiletical enterprise easier, but it doesn’t. I want the people to hear the text anew and afresh. Tomorrow is my day off, and I am trying to be faithful to myself and to my family by honoring that space, so I need to not be writing tomorrow. Plus, I don’t want to fall into the trap of working on my day off. I don’t mind spending some time on Saturday getting ready for Sunday, but I don’t want to leave the sermon until then.
Anyway, I know it sounds like I am just whining, but it didn’t take long for the reality to set in that one pastor trying to cover the work of two pastors is going to be trying at times. Fortunately, we have an active laity, a committed lay staff, and a retired pastor in our midst to help out. Maybe if I get off this stupid blog and write a sermon, I wouldn’t be so far behind.
Edited to say: Sermon is complete. Not great, but complete. And today was one of those days…I am glad it is almost over. Beer anyone?
February 22, 2007 at 5:06 pm
In my (extremely limited) experience as an occasional preacher, I would FREAK if I didn’t have a final draft by Thursday. That probably doesn’t make you feel any better but hopefully you won’t be reading this until after your sermon’s finished
Continued good luck to you “at the helm”.
February 22, 2007 at 5:14 pm
There is no shame in pulling a couple of illustrations from SermonCentral together on a page – letting it alone until Saturday to “cook” as long as you’re willing to really memorize on Saturday as well. – jW
February 23, 2007 at 4:01 am
The church I attend has very good lay leadership. I think that the foundation for this was put down by a pastor some 20 years ago who got a lot of committees going and never was the “leader” of any of the projects or topics. Some people saw him as lazy; I believe that he was the opposite of an enabler. He helped people see that they were/are the Church.
A previous pastor was a workaholic do-it-all pastor who is still looked up to by the old guard as the best ever pastor.
I thought of all of this when you mentioned the property team. I’m glad you deferred to them. Your church will be stronger in the long run when you build these teams and step back and also set boundaries.
May God bless your time at this church in this transition.
February 23, 2007 at 1:41 pm
We have spent the last couple of years intentionally empowering laity and ministry teams to do their thing. I think once a church gets to a certain size, it is essential that pastors really do this. I am grateful for the folks who are just really stepping up.