Last Sunday and Monday I had the pleasure of speaking three times. Two of them were ser-
mons: at St Fergus Parish Church's Sunday morning service, and at the Fishermen Mission's
Sunday evening service. Then Monday evening I spoke to the St Fergus Parish Church Guild.
It was the first time in nearly ten years that I have spoken that many times in two days. I really
enjoyed it. I felt like I was getting back into a preaching groove. It is important to me to be pre-
paring sermons weekly and in a disciplined way. My goal is to prepare nutritious and Christ-
focused messages based on Scripture that feed growing believers in Jesus.
I never use material from one sermon or talk for another at a later time. I firmly believe in 'home
cooking' for each speaking engagement. It means that I spend time pacing back and forth in my
study in order to discern what the Lord would have me say. Now that I am preaching at St. Fer-
gus Parish Church every Sunday and often speaking to some other group, I can't spend as much
time as I used to listening and discerning what God would have me say. I often find myself think-
ing through a text of Scripture while doing something else. It gives me great pleasure to be back preaching every Sunday. I haven't done that since I was pastoring two churches in South Dakota
ten years ago.
Having to prepare for three speaking engagements in two days, I had to discipline the use of my
time. I realise that I have a habit of spending too much time preparing and, as a result, I have too
much material. Over the course of a twenty to twenty-five minute sermon, I have found that I of-
ten use half of material I had prepared. I would like to preach for longer periods of time, but that
would not be received well by people. Hopefully I can do that further on down the line. So, I have
been cutting down on the time I spend in sermon preparation. As a result of more experience
preaching recently, I am learning what material to cut out and what to use in support of my main
point of a talk or sermon. I am also finding ways to cut corners without jeopardising nutritious con-
tent of my message. Plus I am rediscovering my own style of preaching.
I really do enjoy preaching and consider it one of the most significant skills and gifts I have. But
as much as I enjoy it, I have much room for improvement. So it is nice to realise that I am com-
ing back up to speed after not being able to exercise this gift as much as I wanted for over eight
years. It's great gettin' back into the preachin' groove again.
Every blessing to you and yours,
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