Balancing Output and Intake

The Christmas season can be incredibly busy in a minister’s home. I recall listening to some Salvation Army Officers talking about this topic at a retreat where I was speaking. One man related how he was so tired from the press of so much to do at Christmas, that when he finally got home to his family, he was so exhausted that he slept all during the time his children were opening their gifts!

This year there’s a little distance, anyway, between Christmas Sunday and Christmas Day. Even so, numbers of pastors will still have an extra Christmas Eve or Christmas Day sermon and service to prepare for.

When things get too hectic, it’s easy for even “a man or woman of God” to stress out. So how do you keep giving out when the old tank has been running on empty for far too many days already?

Everyone is different, but I found it helpful to read aloud to myself Christmas messages from some of the sermon books in my library. Usually they were from preachers who lived before my time. I didn’t read their words for ideas I could use, but rather to minister to my weary spirit. By reading them aloud so my ears heard the words, they came more alive to me. The same was true the other night when I listened to Handel’s Messiah while I tried to sing along with the music in front of me. I found myself refreshed by this incredible piece of music he wrote.

The idea is to find a way you are ministered to. You see, it’s a privilege to speak about the coming of God’s Son into our world. But you can’t do it at your best if you don’t have intake that in some way makes up for all the output that you are exerting.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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