Sunday’s Always Coming

If you're a minister, you know the phrase "Sunday's always coming." It's one of those fun phrases that remind us that no matter how great last Sunday was, you're always six days away from planning the next one. And even though music choice, scripture readings and prayer all require your attention, the piece that takes the most amount of time and energy every week is planning your sermon.

Most Ministers Love Preaching!

For most of the ministers, preaching is one of their favourite parts of the job. It's an opportunity to teach people more about God, to offer hope, and to show them the passion behind their call to ministry in the first place. When preaching makes a difference in someone's life, or we hear that it deepened someone's faith, it inspires all of us to dig in and try to represent the Word of God in an exciting and relevant way the following week.

Ministers are born collaborators.

Here's something else we know about ministers: they're almost always born collaborators.

It's impossible to work in a church and not be at least some degree of a collaborator. Even introverts called to ministry have learned that working with others is not only a requirement but a benefit for everyone.

Ministers collaborate with staff members and volunteers to run ministries and lead board meetings, committee meetings, and denominational meetings. Ministers depend on music directors to help enter a congregation into worship, elders to serve communion and greeters to ensure people feel cared for and welcome when they come to church for the first time. They work in collaboration in almost every area of their ministry because they understand being a church together is what makes everything great.

Ask a minister about times they saw the Holy Spirit move, an impactful moment during a short-term mission trip, or a breakthrough during a community outreach opportunity, and every story will highlight the benefits and joy of being in a community and working together.

But, ask that same minister how they prepare for sermons, and they'll likely tell you it's behind a closed door, by themselves. Because most of the time, ministers work in collaboration in every area except one:

A Question Worth Asking

How many times have you prepared a message for public consumption in private? How often have you not known how something would sound until you said it out loud in front of your congregation? How many weeks have you wondered, "Will they hear what I'm trying to say?"

Our big question is: Why do ministers almost always prepare sermons by themselves?

Why do we do this to ourselves? Is it pride? A sense of duty or responsibility? Insecurity? Would it burden others to ask for help? Are we afraid someone might tell us what to say or challenge our thinking?

It's likely a little bit of everything, and that's ok. But if you'd allow us, we'd like to make the case that if you can get past whatever or whoever taught you to prepare for every Sunday by yourself, you'll find out what we know to be true.  

Here’s Your Mission – Should You Choose to Accept It

So here’s our challenge to you – give it a try. Take the instinct of collaboration and put it to use in the most regular part of your week. Here are four ideas to help you get started.

Make it a small group. Three people is perfect, four is ok, but five is too many. Make sure there are enough people to share ideas and enough airspace for everyone to work them through

Choose people you trust. While exploring scripture, sometimes you can feel self-conscious about learning something you should have known. By surrounding yourself with people who trust and respect you, this worry fades away

Give it at least 6 weeks in a row. It’s going to be awkward until you find a rhythm, and to do that, you’ll need to try it more than once or twice

Make sure you come in with a direction for everyone to start. You don’t need to have it all mapped out, but starting with a sentence like “I was hoping to take this in the direction of…” will get people moving in a helpful direction.

We’d love to hear about it if you choose to do this. And who knows, maybe we’ll be able to provide opportunities to facilitate these types of collaborative spaces for you!