Better Sermons, Please Pastor

Dear God: I have to open up my heart to you, Lord. Here goes: please bless Pastor with an extra portion of your Spirit regarding sermons. Lately they seem so disorganized, so empty of meat, so uninspiring. And the plain reality going in is that preaching has never been his forte. These past few years we’ve had several families finally drift across town, sighing, “We just do not get fed.”

Father, I know that all of us have gifts and gaps, strong points and weak ones. Please help me to be patient with our pastor’s “journeyman” pulpit abilities and his predictable points. I want to have a patient heart and a searching soul; when there’s an occasional good nugget of truth, please don’t let me miss it because I’m fuming over in the corner.

I’m asking you to also help me simply love this man. He serves us faithfully; he visits his members diligently and he has the most loving heart. That’s worth a lot. I realize that we can feed our souls in other ways besides at 11:30 a.m. Sabbath morning; please lead me toward the spiritual resources that I need.

But to the extent that it’s within your appropriate power, Father, nurture our pastor with new ideas and impassioned convictions. Open up his eyes to the illustrations and the gospel nuggets that sparkle in the universe all around us. Add your miraculous blessing to his dogged commitment, and we’ll say “Amen” as often as we can.

In Jesus’ name, Amen!

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David B. Smith writes from Southern California.

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