Preaching on Uncomfortable Issues

   This coming Sunday, November 4th, I will be delivering a sermon that I really don’t want to preach. As part of the New Consecration Sunday campaign, the pastor’s sermon needs to be on the topic of stewardship and the need of the giver to give. I am in my 24th year of ministry and in that time I can probably count on one (maybe both) hands the number of times I have deliberately preached on the topic of stewardship. It is just one of those topics that makes me (and many other pastors) uncomfortable.

   I hope, however, that the sermon this week will be a turning point for me. I have been doing some thinking and reading recently to prepare myself for this sermon. I believe that a new way of looking at the topic of stewardship is beginning to grow within me. I’ve already told the Administrative Board that they may be hearing more such talk from me in the year ahead. They said, “Go ahead and talk about it.” So pray for me as I prepare for this Sunday and as I begin to look at the year that lies ahead.

 

Preacher I Really Liked Your Sermon

   On Sunday morning the preacher and the congregation do a little two step. The preacher stands at the back of the church and greets folks as they exit the worship area. He’ll call them by name and ask how things are going. He’ll wish them a good week. They will often say, “Preacher, I really liked your sermon today.”

   As a preacher, I sometimes have to wonder about those that utter this phrase. I wonder “Did they really like it, or are they just trying to be polite?” Almost without fail, on the days when I feel that I have preached a terrific sermon (and by the way these days are few and far between) no one seems to comment on the sermon. On the days when I feel as if I have preached a mediocre sermon, I tend to get the well used phrase, “That was a great sermon.”

   I sometimes wonder if the sermons that I think I am preaching are really the sermons that the people are hearing. I am amazed by the way that the Holy Spirit uses the words that come out of my mouth. I have to assume that when people tell me what a great sermon it was, that there was something in that sermon that made them think, or laugh, or cry or respond in some way to the words that were coming out of my mouth. I have to assume that the Holy Spirit was not only moving in my words, but in their lives.

   That’s what makes me want to go on preaching Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. My words might become God’s words to someone that hears them. Pray for me. Pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart will be found acceptable to God–each and every Sunday.