A couple years ago, when Dave and I were moving from Minneapolis to Blormal, we rented a moving truck and drove that and our Honda Civic in tandem. For 8 hours, we were each all alone in our vehicles. For the first 30 minutes or so, that was fine with me. But then I started getting lonely. (Using my safety-first hands-free device, of course) I called every friend I could think of. But since it was a weekday, pretty much everyone was busy at work. I didn't reach one person, so essentially I had to spend 8 hours in complete solitude, which for an extrovert like myself was COMPLETE misery! I was so TIRED by the time we got to Illinois, I just wanted to sleep forever... not from the driving, but just from the experience of solitude.
Yep. I am an extrovert. (Surprise!) And most of the time, it works for me. Especially as a pastor. Overall, I'd say that introverts have a harder time with ministry than extroverts. Being a pastor is definitely a job that requires a LOT of people time. Which is perfect for me because I LOVE people time! However... I am discovering that there is one crucial element of pastoral work that requires a LOT of alone time, and I can't say I am digging it.
Preaching! Preaching requires SO MUCH alone time! Well, not the "preaching" per se, but the process of thinking, praying, reading, writing, practicing and perfecting the sermon... they all have to be done pretty much all alone. And while I LOVE to preach and feel like I am pretty good at it, on the weeks when I am preaching, by the time Friday rolls around, I am WIPED! I'm drained from being by myself so much.
I am not sure what to do about this. Is this simply something I have to deal with as a pastor or is there some kind of solution to make the sermon-prep time more tolerable?
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Perhaps first enter into conversation with God? Share mundane details, things that annoy you, a hope you have... some things you would share over coffee. Maybe sermon prep could be like having a cup of tea with Jesus at your kitchen counter. Just a thought from one extrovert to another....
OH MY WORD!!!! Beeea...I cannot even tell you...I had this EXACT conversation with my internship supervisor after I preached! I was trying to write my sermon (which I actually preached first to my preaching class at school), and the night before it was due I was literally banging my head against the wall because I had all these ideas, but none of them were formulating very well on the page. Finally, I forced Lisa to talk it through with me...and the clouds parted, the angels sang, and I finished writing. I told my supervisor that story, and he was all, "yeah...that process sucks because you're an EXROVERT. You need to have some system built in where you can talk thing out before you preach." So...maybe we just need to cal each other and say "here's the passage I'm looking at, and here's what I'm thinking..." Actually...that might be great...because then we could just preach the same sermons! No one would know! We'd be RICH!!!
Just wanted to let you know...I get it!!
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