August at Creekside usually means that Don, our lead pastor, is travelling. He is an avid fisherman, and he uses August as a month to go and wrangle some fish. For the past few years I have been picking up the majority of the Sunday morning preaching. This year I’ve had all of August to write and preach every Sunday. Two services. 35-50 minutes, talking, and hours of prep-work before that.
It takes a lot out of you. It’s hard to stay creative for every sermon. It’s really challenging to keep the sermon fresh for the second service. It’s really challenging to meet my deadlines for our pre-preach. It’s also a challenge to balance all of that preaching and prep-work with my normal responsibilites.
This month has just reminded me that I need to stay to keep control of my calendar or else I will be pulled by other people’s plans.
I’ve also been reminded that Creativity is a discipline that can be developed. The people who make a living on their creativity to not wait for their creativity to strike, instead they put creativity on the calendar and make it work for them.
I’ve also seen that you don’t have to preach the same way everyone else preaches. Take some risks. Have fun. If you are bored as a communicator, guess what, your audience is even more bored. Try something new, add a new element to your sermons. Bring in other voices. Mix it up.
This month has been challenging but incredibly rewarding for me. I have one more Sunday and then I’ve got a good long stretch off. I better go start my research and prep.
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