The Mental Side of Preaching

Preaching is hard work. Exegeting a text, exegeting your congregation, and then crafting a proclamation of Law and Gospel that will neither bore your congregation nor sail far over their heads, is hard work. Sometimes I hit the mark, but often times I do not. At all times, I take refuge in the promise of God that His Spirit working through His Word will "achieve that for which He sends it" (Is 55:10-11) - so whether or not I "feel" good about a sermon is irrelevant. It is God's Word proclaimed, and God has promised to work through that Word in the hearts of His people. Often in ways I will never know.

But then there is also the actual preaching of the sermon. There are all different styles of preaching and delivery, and I am not writing here to critique any of them. I simply want to point out that for me, there is a definite "mental side of preaching" - the concentration and attention involved in proclaiming the sermon I have written this week to the congregation. It is the reason why I am usually tired on Sunday afternoon - preaching is not hard physical work, but it is very hard mental work.

This comes to my mind because of what happened to me yesterday - I flubbed in the middle of the sermon. Not a major breakdown, but an important reversal of what I wanted to say. I realized it, stopped, and corrected myself. No big deal. But my concentration, my attention, my "mental side of preaching," was broken. I write out my sermons and try to learn them to preach them, and I had the whole text of my sermon right before me (which I finished preaching), but I could not get myself back mentally. The rest of the sermon I felt "disengaged" rather than "engaged." Which was quite frustrating.

I thought later in the day of gymnasts. Sometimes you see these athletes "fall off the beam" in the middle of their routines, and what do they have to do? Get right back up and finish. The best in the world are able to do so, and finish well. I have never appreciated what mental toughness that must take until today. I got back on the beam, but did not finish so well. Thanks be to God that the sermon does not depend on my "performance" but on the Word and promise of God! Nevertheless, I have learned something from this, and the next time it happens (for surely it will!), I will be better prepared and hopefully finish more strongly. The saints of God deserve my best.