Thanks,
Matt Keller
Taming the Monster of Sunday
(Help for Pastors under Pressure)
7. Use a Wall of Sundays to organize your thoughts. The way to see the long-range rhythm of your year is to have a place to put your creative thoughts when they come to you. We started doing this about 3 years ago and our wall of Sundays has become life to me and our team. I have to see things big and as a team, we need to plan ahead.
Here’s a picture of our most current Wall-of-Sundays.
8. Practice your messages. Some pastors will say they want to "make sure the emotion of the moment comes through on Sunday," or that "you can't rehearse the anointing." But I think that's just an excuse. You wouldn't say that to your worship team. If we want our worship team to rehearse and come prepared, then so should we. It took me awhile to get used to practicing my messages out loud, but for me, there's no better way to actually get the content into your mind and spirit.
I can't tell you how many times I will be practicing my message in my home office on Saturday night and hear myself say something a certain way. In those moments, I'll actually stop and say out loud, "That didn't sound right. Don't say it that way again." ThenI’ll go back to the beginning of that section or story and practice saying it a different way.
By the way, for those of you who do multiple services, remember, first service is not your practice. We can either sweat in preparation or bleed in battle. I don't know about you, but I would rather sweat in preparation.
The Result:
As a communicator who now speaks 150 - 200 times/year as well as writes consistently, it is vital that I have a sustainable rhythm for message preparation and content. There's no way I could live out my calling otherwise.
If you're a communicator, begin to strategically work on developing your own rhythm. It will serve you well for years to come.
1 comments:
Pastor Matt...
Thank you for sharing your method. As missionaries on the field, we don't have the opportunity to share every week, so I believe the monster is just as big for us as we consider all that is on our hearts. Which message would be appropriate for the venue, the timing, this church plant, the culture I find myself in, etc? Your example of the Wall of Sundays is perfect-a place to put the ideas that God is sharing with us personally to be shared at a later date to an audience I may not have met yet.
I have learned some great lessons from this 3 part message and will be sharing them with our new pastor. I am not sure if you know, our Senior Leader passed away from a massive stroke back at the end of September. A new Senior Leader has just been selected. A great young man, one of your contemporaries, that has been in our church since the age of 12 and a born again believer much earlier than that. He is doing a wonderful job but also know that he could use the advice of others on his very same journey-leading a great church, planting churches locally. Hopefully you will have an opportunity to meet via your blog, skype or some day personally. In the meantime, Paul and I will do our part to support him and our elders. Blessings to you and all of Next Level Church! You are definitely experiencing wonderful times with the new facility almost complete and all the opportunities to reach the community such a building will help you move through.
We love you all and are so proud to call you our American home church!!!
Mary Triller
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