Even those of us who love to preach sometimes lose our passion for the work, even if it’s for only a few weeks. If you’ve lost some of your passion for preaching the Word, maybe these simple steps will help light your fire again this week.
- Remember your calling. Go back to the beginning – back to your first understanding of God’s call on your life. Something just happens to us when we re-live the excitement of God’s hand on us.
- Think about the believers around the world who would long to be able to preach the Word freely. The time that you have to preach the Scriptures next Sunday will be longer that some believers have in their lifetime to preach without threat on their lives. Don’t take your opportunity for granted.
- Pray about preaching a favorite text. You want to follow the Spirit’s leading, of course, but sometimes He leads us to a text that we just love. He graciously lets us camp in fun, familiar, and encouraging territory for a week.
- Get prayer warriors praying for you. You might already have folks praying for you, but all of us can use more prayer support. Enlist several folks (at least 3-5 people) who will intercede for you this week – even perhaps taking a day to fast on your behalf. I assure you that you’ll approach preaching differently when you know you’ve been covered in prayer.
- Intentionally make/take more time to prepare your sermon. Set aside more hours this week, and protect that time. Ask your leaders to help protect your time with God. It’s a basic step, but it’ll pay off with renewed preaching vigor.
- If you’re not already doing it, start preaching through a book of the Bible. This kind of preaching not only helps you teach the Word to your church, but it also helps you know where you’re headed with your sermons each week. Just knowing that information can help release some stress.
- Get rid of private sin in your life. Few things hinder our preaching like our personal sin does. On the other hand, preaching is seldom more enjoyable than when we stand before God’s people as holy, faithful leaders. Be the latter leader.
- Invite some church members to critique your sermon. When you intentionally invite somebody to evaluate your sermon, you’ll put more effort into the task. That may not be the best motive, but it moves us in the right direction.
- Weep over the lostness of the world and the faithlessness of the church. When we see spiritual realities, and we know that proclaiming the Word is a central way to address these issues, the task of preaching should be that much more important to us.
What other ways would you add to this list?
Editor’s note: This post was originally published at chucklawless.com
MDiv Preaching and Pastoral Ministry
The Preaching and Pastoral Ministry track prepares students for pastoral ministry in the local church with a special emphasis on expository preaching.
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