long as they are growing and happy and are being built on the purposes of moving them out into ministry and mission I am happy about it.” All styles can help people deepen their love for Jesus. When you give other people the opportunity to preach, you’re putting the needs of the congregation first. REASON #3: YOu CAN FOCuS ON OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES. There’s more to being a preacher than preaching. You have other responsibilities. And they are important responsibilities. When you have other people to shoulder the load of teaching God’s Word to the congregation, it will free up blocks of your time and weeks on your schedule to focus on these other important tasks of leadership. Larry Osborne, Pastor of North Coast Church in California says, “I find that my regular breaks from the pulpit get me off the sermon prep treadmill before I’ve reached a point of emotional exhaustion. Though I often end up working just as hard and even harder during my nonpreaching weeks, it’s the change in routine that makes the difference.” Larry hits on something that is very important. A week NOT spent in sermon prep can be extremely beneficial to the
church in general and your leadership in particular. If you knew you had a weekend where you were not preaching, you could use that time to work ON the organization, not IN the weekly grind of sermon prep. “Sharing the preaching load allows me time to make sure our ship is headed in the right direction,” writes Jeff Cranston. Yes, it’s helpful to have a weekend off so you can have a week to disengage on vacation. But it’s equally helpful to have a weekend off from teaching so you can focus your energy on other important work in the church. REASON #4: YOu CAN RECHARGE. The pressure to prepare an accurate, quality, meaningful sermon every week is tremendous. Preparing and delivering messages is taxing both creatively and emotionally. The statement that “preachers don’t do much during the week” is laughable to you. In addition to preparing a 5,000 word speech every week, you counsel, lead, meet, write, and so much more. That’s why you need to stop from time to time. God instituted the Sabbath so we would learn to trust him. Likewise, preachers need to step out of the pulpit and rest, and trust God that He will lead and feed His church while they are away.
