The power of the pulpit in the small church

...This demands that sermon preparation remains a priority. Sometimes, this can be challenging especially for the bivocational pastor who is trying to squeeze many activities into a limited number of hours. During my pastorate I fired a few "Saturday night specials" into the congregation, and most of them were instantly forgettable. The messages that spoke to the congregation were usually the ones I had invested time in preparing.

A minister can block off time for various ministry activities, but that will usually last only until the telephone rings. The pastor who can set aside Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings for sermon preparation is usually one who has staff available to run to the hospital when a member goes in and other people to handle various other responsibilities. That will not describe most bivocational ministers. We may want to do sermon preparation at certain times during the week, but we also know that will only happen if an emergency doesn't occur that requires our attention elsewhere. At the same time we cannot neglect sermon preparation by using those emergencies as an excuse. Sermon preparation must be a priority which means we simply have to spend time working on our sermons.


http://bivocationalministry.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-power-of-pulpit-in-small-church.html?spref=fb