Take your sermon preparation seriously.
My father preached two different sermons on Sunday mornings. And he taught the minister’s conference on Mondays and the church’s Sunday school teacher’s meeting on Monday nights. Each message was fully handwritten. His secretary would get them on Thursday and type them to return to him by the end of business on Fridays. I never saw him go to the pulpit unprepared. My father also taught a class for ministers on Tuesday evenings. He would give a devotional message and discuss some area of ministry. Then he wanted to know what each preacher present was studying. It didn’t matter if you only preached once a year! His discipline for study and readiness in the pulpit taught me to take my sermon preparation seriously.
Be generous.
My father was a sharp dresser. He loved clothes. Yet he freely gave them away. I still meet preachers who tell me my father gave them their first nice suit or pair of shoes. He found as much joy in giving them away as he did in buying them. This is just one expression of his generosity. I do not remember hearing my father quote the words of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). But he modeled it on a regular basis. I am blessed by those who are kind to me to somehow repay my father’s generosity to them.
Love your congregation.
There are pastors who love to preach but cannot stand the people to whom they are called to preach. My father definitely loved to preach. But he loved his congregation just as much as he loved the pulpit. I never heard him complain about the congregation. He loved being with them. He was there in times of crisis. He even loved those who were hard to love. My father was a pulpiteer. But when I meet his former members, they don’t talk about his preaching. They tell me about visits, baptisms, funerals, weddings and countless ways he lovingly shepherded his congregation.
Be a friend to preachers.
My father had 19 associate ministers at his church when he died. He was a friend to the older men. He was a father figure to the younger men. This extended to preachers outside of his congregation. Beyond Mt. Sinai, my father did what he could to help preachers and pastors. He taught what he knew. He shared what he had. Many Sunday afternoons, we would worship with other congregations. Most often he would go to be a help to a small-church pastor who could not return the favor. This is how I had so many preaching opportunities as a boy preacher. Men would preach me out of gratitude for my father’s friendship to them. Because of my dad’s influence, I don’t have a category for preachers who do not like preachers. My father taught me to be a friend to preachers.
