Why sermon preparation is not devotional time
Every Monday morning, I swivel in my desk chair—praying, pondering. Yellow legal pads fill with chicken scratch in a language only I understand. About 50 Mondays a year, around 3:00 p.m., I start to wonder if I’ll have anything worthwhile to say the following Sunday. The other two Mondays I’m on vacation.
I know it’s the Holy Spirit, but many weeks it feels like sheer luck. My sermon comes together and cogent points begin to form. I’ve heard of some pastors using their sermon preparation as a devotional time. For me, that could never happen. I sweat too much when I write sermons. I’d get dehydrated.
Sermon preparation is not — and should not be used as — devotion time. Sermon writing is devotional to an extent. Both involve prayer. Both elevate Scripture. Both require the work of the Holy Spirit. But they are different.
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The purposes are different. Sermons are public. Devotional times are personal. The purpose of a sermon is to reveal the mysteries of God to the bride of Christ at a specific point in time. The purpose of devotional time is to spur individual growth over time. There is overlap between them, no doubt. But the sermon is more acute in power, while the devotional is more longitudinal in power.
The processes are different. It’s not that sermon writing is a cold, mechanical process, and devotional times are warm, fluid interactions with God. The fruit of sermon writing can be similar to your devotion. However, the process of writing a sermon is — and should be —different than the process of having a devotional time. Sermons have a deadline. Devotionals are ongoing. Sermons have a weekly resolution. Devotionals require a lifetime of consistency.
The audiences are different. A sermon is meant for the entire church. In most cases, sermons are meant for a broad audience — the 5-year-old and the 85-year-old. Five generations may listen to a sermon together in the same room. A devotional time, however, is exclusive to the individual. In order to separate the two, I make sure my devotional focus is different than the sermon series I am preaching.
Your sermons should not act as a devotional time. It’s tempting. I spend 10 to 20 hours per week writing and preparing sermons. Is that enough to grow in Christ? I’m sure it is. But figuring out the path of least resistance is not the calling of a Christian. Is having two separate times efficient? No. But efficiency is not the primary calling of a pastor.
Originally published at Church Answers.
Sam Rainer is president of Church Answers and pastor at West Bradenton Baptist Church in Florida.
