A Sabbath from Preaching

It was a mighty relief once I asked to be relieved of my preaching duty this Sunday. I have been preaching three Sundays in a row which was a first time for me since becoming the pastor of the church. If I count the sermons for prayer meetings (twice) and a wake service, I have preached six times in the past 3 weeks. No wonder my mind is telling me to take a break and in fact a friend suggested as much. As preaching takes much time in preparation, reading the biblical texts, praying before the Lord for wisdom, understand the situation of the local church and the members' needs, it is spiritual burden. No wonder the priests of old were said to be ministering the burden of the congregation and it is a burden one has to bear and it can be relentless like in the past month.

Now I hope I have two Sundays without preaching and return to the pulpit fresh and full of energy. I also realised that my style of preaching is a factor in how much and how long I could preach. One former church member from my home church once told me that every sermon I preached was a like a revival sermon and it could be draining if one should preach that way. Some 25 years ago, I found out real quick that my style is best suited to 3 consecutive messages. It started with 7 meetings, then 5 but at the end, I am glad that nowadays even during my visits to the interior last year, I was seldom asked to preach more than 3 times. In Banggi Island a year ago, I preached three sermons plus a morning seminar and that was close to the maximum that I could handle over the weekend.