Sundays like yesterday are VERY exhausting for me! It is days like yesterday which I am reminded of the HUGE blessing i have in my wife, Christi, who is there to encourage, support, care for, and help me in so many ways.
So, I preached my sermon yesterday on Genesis 2:1-3. I even did it in the 20-minute time limit. When all was said and done I was very happy with how my sermon went. I got a lot of very positive feedback, including a huge thumbs-up from the senior pastor who also was excited about the breadth of scripture I brought into my sermon and the way I tied it all together. I also had many people tell me I shared something new about the Sabbath that they had never heard before or thought of. And I even had six people ask me directly if they could get a copy of my sermon. Those were all so very encouraging. I felt good about my presentation and the material. I felt like I communicated well, was clear, and gave the personal application I felt was so important.
One additional hard thing about preaching is due to the nature of my job. See, on weeks when I have to preach, the senior pastor has one element of his job that he doesn't have to worry about that week. But for me, I don't get to drop any of my "normal" youth ministry duties. So, I ADD work to my week, and add work to my Sunday. This makes it a lot more stressful and exhausting. In fact, the truth is that yesterday, after church, my wife asked me, "what are you teaching at youth group tonight?" and I had to admit honestly, "I have no idea, I haven't prepared that yet. I have 4 hours to figure that one out." OK.... I admit, this is NOT a good way of doing youth ministry. Preparing 4 hours before you are supposed to teach is not wise. I figured I would pull out one of my many lessons I have written over the last 18 years, and since I've only been at this church for 1 year now I have a lot of unused material that I could revise and recycle. And this is when I love my wife. She encouraged and suggested to me a plan for Sunday night. She knew some material that I had that would be good to use and need only slight revisions. And so, we got home after lunch and she put the children down for a nap while I began to revise some material to teach for Sunday night.
We didn't have a large attendance Sunday night, but we had a good core of students there for youth group. I had set everything up, got my lesson revised, and also had a nooma video set up as a 2nd "option." The first option was giving them a worksheet I put together on how to prepare a testimony (both a salvation story and a growth story). Most everyone did both options last night and at least three of the students asked if they could share their testimony at youth group (Praise God)! So, by the end of last night, i came home feeling exhausted and energized. I also felt HUGE appreciate to my wife, who not only gave me some great feedback on my sermon, great ideas for sunday night, helped lead sunday night, but also took care of the kids in between church and youth group so I could make my revisions, take a nap, and be ready for the night. I can't say "thanks" enough to her or tell her how much I appreciate her leadership, friendship, help, and love.
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Posted by: How to love my wife | February 24, 2009 at 01:33 AM
Ryan I am right there with ya man I have to preach this coming Sunday and add it into all the other stuff I am going to be wiped out.
Posted by: Jason Roth | February 25, 2009 at 05:23 PM
Sermon post is pompous, bragadacious and self-serving. Do you model this for your youth?????
Posted by: Chuck Bertram | May 07, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Chuck - I do not understand how you can read my post and get that it is pompous, braggadocios, and self-serving?? I was simply sharing my thoughts, shared what a wonderful wife I have, shared how hard preaching can be at times, and shared that I was happy with how my sermon went. I think that is just reflection and contemplation and yes, THAT is something I try to model for my youth.
Posted by: Ryan Nielsen | May 07, 2009 at 11:43 AM