How do you think about preaching?
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Reverend Galen Gingrich reminded a class that I was in 10 years ago that parish ministers should expect to preach at least 30 to 40, 20 minute sermons each year. It's the equivalent of writing a mid-size novel every 12 months. A preacher's life then he said, should reflect that reality. Preaching and worship are consistently the things that congregants say are the most important roles of a minister's job. And leading them weekly is a discipline. It's an art. It requires time and practice. So one of the things that I love about preaching in the context of a called ministry is the sense of an ongoing conversation between the preacher and the congregation that they serve. Not every sermon needs to answer every question, but can open up new themes and questions that are addressed down the road. My favorite thing in preaching is to say, “here's this really interesting thing. We don't have time for it this morning, but we're going to take it up next week.“
My own style of preaching and leading worship is informed by my underlying theology that what we do on Sunday morning is a common endeavor shared by members of a voluntary community that gather to deepen their connection to the source of meaning in their lives. And what that means in practice is that perfection is not the goal. We're humans trying to make meaning together. And if something goes wrong, the wrong hymn plays or the minister's trips in the pulpit. We laugh, we share joy at being together in the midst of our lives. And then we go on to what comes next. Meaning making is the goal.