What's a Preacher to do?

People wonder what I do. We all know pastors have preaching gigs on Sundays. The running joke is that preachers have the easiest job in the world because we only work on Sundays. Right. Actually, Sundays are my favorite. Love everybody coming together for a "monster pep rally for God". I like seeing everybody....at once. I've heard of these cyber churches, but that doesn't cut it with me. Gotta have the people connection face to face.

Let's see, what else do I do? Let me put it this way....it all depends on you. That's right - ya'll pretty much determine what I do week in and week out. Unpredictable it is. I can look at my calendar for the upcoming week and think, "Hey, not too crazy of a week." Right. Come Tuesday my calendar is full. But that's OK because I love the spontaneous and I love people...which means I can handle spontaneous people and their "happenings"...and trust me, things happen. I like not knowing what the week will hold. Sometimes, unfortunately, it's tragic/tough stuff. Marriages falling apart. An unexpected expenditure at the church. Problems galore. Do what I can to help. I do quite a few funerals. Do twice as many funerals as weddings...if you think about it, you marry two people at once but bury everyone individually, which pretty much accounts for the 2:1 ratio. But then again I might be marrying someone for their second time around, so maybe it's more like a 1.5:1 ratio.

A large part of my day is emails (my preferred method of communicating), a few phone calls, helping staff with their questions, in-office appointments (usually a couple a day), out of office appointments, and chipping away at projects that somehow end up on my desk. Chipping away at projects is my weak link. Not great with the details. I also try to chip away at my Sunday message, but usually don't get rolling with that till Friday...or Saturday...or Saturday night - you get the drift. Having a great staff takes some of the week's pressure off as well.

Bottom line...love being a preacher. It's never boring and it's very satisfying to help people live a life that honors God and improves their outlook as well. I reckon I'll just keep doing what a preacher does.