I am a young pastor. Which means, I probably don’t know a ton and haven’t made enough mistakes to know the difference. I realize this. I get it. I am 34 and have been in full time ministry for 5 years. I have been working on a church plant for 2 of those years where I have been preaching every week. Prior to that I filled the pulpit on an occasional basis. My mindset was always that of trying to make the most of each opportunity. At the foundational level it is because I think that preaching is a stewardship from God. We do not know how many sermons we will actually get. This is sobering, humbling and dependence forging.
This is why, as a young pastor, I am almost militant about how I approach my preaching schedule. I want to be at our local church gatherings as often as possible (excluding of course the needed vacations). I want to plan the books to preach through, the various schedules of completion, and even the coordination with the music ministry. I also want to talk with our other shepherds to identify particular areas of emphasis that we may need to cover as a church.
In light of this I cannot understand why guys jump from church to church. I don’t get why pastors travel to conference after conference about ministry and then don’t preach on Sundays. I can’t get behind filler or repreached sermons. Our people and our pulpits are a ministry that are given. We are stewards (1 Cor 4.1-2). They are Christ’s people and Christ’s pulpit.
I look at it like this. I am the soldier. We are under fire. I am reaching my hand behind me and pulling out clip after clip to load in my weapon. The clips are the sermons. I don’t know when the ammo will run out. But when it does I will be not be looking at the congregation any longer but at Jesus. And on that day I want to know that I have exhausted myself in the ministry of the word of God and prayer (Col. 1.28-29; Acts 6.4). These are the people and this is the community where I am called. So as a result, I am reaching fast and furious for another clip and firing away with the zeal that aims to advance the flag of the King’s army.