Game Day for Pastors

For me as a pastor, Sunday is game day.  This is the day that I am called upon to preach the Word of God to the hundreds of people that God will bring into our church here in Northern Michigan.  I take Sunday very seriously.  To me, it is the hub from which all of the other ministries of our church branch.  Here at Gaylord E-Free, a lot of time is put in by many people during the week in meetings, preparing, studying, rehearsing, building sets, downloading videos, praying, etc., to prepare for Sunday. 

When it comes to sports, athletes have a system or routine they follow on game day to prepare to play.  I think the same is true of pastors.  Most preachers have a routine they follow each Sunday leading up to the worship service.  Let me share a little “behind the scenes” look at how I personally prepare for “game day” each Sunday morning:

6:20am – I get out of bed and get ready with the goal of being into my office at church by 7:00am.

7:00am – I spend 30 minutes with a cup of coffee in prayer and browsing through an additional commentary or two on the passage I am preaching on that morning just to solidify one more time in my mind the main thrust I want to communicate that morning.

7:30am – I do a final run through in my office of my sermon, preaching it in the same way I am looking to preach it in our morning services (a dress rehearsal of such).

8:15am – I go upstairs and check-in with our sound techs, video techs and our Worship Arts Director to make sure there are no last minute changes or problems I need to be aware of.

8:30am – Back in my office I get my microphones on (I wear two mics in case one gives us any problems we can easily switch to the other without much disruption to the flow of the service) and watch any videos that I might be introducing as part of the service.  I then spend a few minutes in personal worship.

8:50am – I go upstairs and meet with the Worship Team for prayer prior to the start of our first service.

9:00am – Our first service begins.

10:10am – Our first service ends following which I remain out in the foyer greeting people

10:25am – I spend about 10 minutes in my office catching my breath and having a yogurt as our second service begins

10:35am – I head back upstairs and into our second worship service which started at 10:30am.

11:40am – Our second service ends and again I remain out in the foyer afterwards greeting people.

12:00-12:30pm – I wrap things up in my office and get ready to head out to lunch followed by a nap as I watch whatever ballgame might be on television.