How do I prepare for worship? If I'm not leading it, I show up. If I'm there a few minutes ahead, I'll read through the bulletin.
If I am leading worship, I usually don't have everything ready before my weekend. I spend the weekend with my husband, either in Centerville or Omaha, and during my "time off" I'm usually worrying about the sermon or the worship service. Sunday morning I get up early, 5 or 6am depending on how much I still have to do. I finish up the sermon, the children's sermon, the pastoral prayer, and any technology I might be using. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to practice the sermon once. I'm teaching children's Sunday school this year, so a couple of weeks ago I've added preparing for class and getting to church even earlier to my Sunday morning routine. Doesn't make for a very worshipful time for me. The prayer of confession I pray most often is, "I'm sorry for not being better prepared."
As I was sharing this with my spiritual director, she said, "What would it look like if you really prepared spiritually for worship?" I got a smile on my face and said, "Wow! If my sermon and everything else were already prepared, I could get up a little early, have a cup of coffee, and spend time in prayer."
I want my Sunday mornings to look like that. So my goal is to get everything ready at that beginning of the week so that my Saturdays and Sundays can be rest and preparation for worship.
It's Friday at 1:30pm. Sunday school is almost ready (I just have to glue a shepherd and sheep onto sticks). The pastoral prayer is ready. The children's sermon is ready. The video for the Peacemaking offering is ready. The sermon is not quite ready, but I have a couple of hours before Frank gets here. (Finishing the sermon earlier in the week is my dream, and I'm making progress. It's a bit like turning the Titanic. It takes a while.)
Perhaps this Sunday I'll be able to wake up a little early, get a cup of coffee, and pray before worship.
How do you prepare for worship?
I can't do much final touch-up Sunday morning. I'd much rather stay up late Saturday night getting it all finished (although I've written a disappointing number of pastoral prayers on Sunday mornings lately). Better, I try to get the sermon put to bed by Thursday night or Friday. My "weekend" is Monday, because I know that it won't happen if it's not the first piece I fit into the week.
ReplyDeleteThis means that scripture study happens on Sunday afternoon/evening, the bulletin gets prepped Tuesday or Wednesday, and the Sermon is written Thursday or Friday. In real life, that timing is a whole lot fuzzier than it sounds, but that's the goal.
Sunday morning, I'm in the building an hour early. I put all my papers in the pulpit, get my glass of water, make sure any other "props" are arranged. I try to read through my notes (sermon and prayers - anything I won't just be reading) one more time. This would be a good time for some more deeply centering prayer, but usually it turns into checking email and killing time until my Sunday School class shows up.
You're absolutely right about turning the Titanic. Our routines carry so much momentum that any change in a Sunday morning routine has to begin early in the week. What's your pre-Sunday routine?
Before Centerville (and Frank) I wrote my sermons on Saturday. It was agony. Since I have to take my weekend on Friday/Saturday, my goal was to finish the rough draft before Frank came or I left for Omaha. That was a HUGE accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteSince my secretary wants the bulletin info super-early, I started working on it on Monday. I know try to do the exegesis, bulletin prep, and even outline for the sermon on Monday. So I usually don't schedule anything else for Monday and stay inside to get that work done. Recently I decided I want to spend both Monday and Tuesday getting the rough draft written as well as the other things for Sunday. My Wednesdays are busy with meetings, and I can do other stuff the rest of the week.
I've realized that my problem with writing the sermon is not so much procrastination as it is momentum. If I have the momentum going, I can do lots of work. That's why Mondays are good for sermon prep. But when I stop, it's very, very hard for me to get going again. So if I do it all at the beginning of the week, I can let momentum help me.
My goal is to be working on three sermons, exegesis three weeks ahead, rough draft two weeks ahead, and revision for the upcoming sermon. Or at least two. Have the rough draft written a week ahead so I have a week to do revisions.