5. Adjust your sleep schedule accordingly. There is a world of difference between six and seven hours of sleep. If you know you need to get up an hour or two earlier, go to bed an hour or two earlier. Don’t cut sleep for the sake of Saturday Night Live. Remember Sunday is now going to require more energy of you—you’ll need at least as much sleep as you were getting before. Standing up in front of searching people to communicate God’s Word effectively isn’t something we should try tired—if the reasons are within our control.
6. The more services you preach, the fewer Sundays you should preach. At least, if you value your family and health. This becomes more important the higher the service count gets. Don’t gamble with your health. Pay close attention to it—and listen to your spouse.
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7. Avoid conflict before or between the services, when possible. I’m a big-time extrovert, and at New Vintage Church, I can allow my extrovert side go wild between the services because we have gracious people who are unlikely to complain, criticize or whack me between the services—thus impacting my spiritual state of mind heading into the next service. I haven’t always been able to do this. Some Sundays over the years, it’s been a war zone out there. So, I felt I owed it to God, guests and members to keep myself spiritually ready to preach. If you need to do the same, have a green room or another sacred spot that will allow you to stay spiritually prepared. People don’t realize how amped up we preachers are after preaching a service, and thus, how hard it is for us to constructively receive criticism—and then go back on stage right after and deliver the sermon faithfully. Be honest with yourself on this one, so you can …
8. Give all the services your best. This is easier when you are preaching two services rather than four. However, it’s vital for the growth of each service that the preacher doesn’t mail it in for either. For instance, if you have an 8:15 service attended by 20 percent of the congregation, and a 10:30 a.m. attended by 80 percent (hopefully this isn’t the setup), it’s natural to “play favorites.” Don’t do it. Do whatever it takes. A few years ago I was in a situation like that, and I recognized the quality gap between the two services was widening. I actually asked our tech team to publish the earliest service as the podcast sermon for the week—both audio and video. Doing this disciplined me toward focus, energy and delivering a better sermon to those faithful people.
Question: What else might you add to this list? How have you seen these born out in your experience.
