Today is Monday it is my off day. A day when I relax with family, don’t answer my phone, get refreshed and suck on some 9 volts in effort to get recharged. In the midst of this weekly pursuit my excellent wife dropped a great question on me.
In essence Christie asked, “Are you planning out your preaching schedule in light of the fact that you are going to die?” I honestly don’t like to think about this but it is true. The edifying and convicting conversation went on and Christie was throwing strikes. She asked, “If you only had 10 years left what would you give people?”
I was genuinely bothered by this. I think the main reason was that I needed to come to grips with my ever approaching expiration date (which I don’t like to consider on my day off!). But after some consideration, I think this is a very helpful exercise.
Currently I am preaching through Colossians and aim to have it completed by early March. Then I have a few passages/issues that I want to handle individually. After this we are planning a study in Leviticus. But after this, there is a bunch of white space. I at least want to prayerfully work through this.
I need to think through the big picture needs/goals for the congregation that God has given to my care. I have to continually evaluate the priorities, blind spots, and weaknesses. While at the same time, I need to prayerfully analyze the corresponding biblical answers to these questions.
This clarifies and simplifies things to some degree. For one thing it burdens me to know people better, pray harder, study harder and pray for help. It also makes me want to preach the Old Testament more and study how it points to Christ. I could go on and on. I wanted to relax and get recharged today, and by God’s grace and through my ‘excellent’ wife, it seems to have happened.
I know that many of you are preachers. I’m curious how you might handle planning out your preaching schedule.