the hard work of preaching

I am not sure if this should encourage me, motivate me or what! Not sure if this is a good thing or not. I have been re-reading a book from my Seminary days (those days when all young theology students imagined themselves as "giants in the preaching world" after the order of Charles Spurgeon or Billy Graham!)


The book is Warren Wiersbe's Walking with the Giants, Baker 1976. Chapter 3 is about Alexander Maclaren, 1826 - 1910.
....it seems Maclaren "often said he could never prepare sermons while wearing slippers; he always wore his outdoor boots" - to suggest how hard the work of study and preparation really is. Wiersbe says "when you read his sermons, you can quickly tell that they were not manufactured between conferences and committee meetings" ....thus "he took it seriously" ... hmmm


Maclaren was born in Glasgow. He started in a few small quiet places and then did 45 years at Union Chapel in Manchester. Maclaren told ministerial students "I thank God that I was stuck down in a quiet, little obscure place to begin my ministry; for that is what spoils half of you young fellows. You get pitched into prominent positions at once, and then fritter yourselves away in all manner of little engagements that you call duties.... instead of stopping at home and reading your Bibles and getting near to God".


I recall being taught by the late great Harold Ockenga that sermon preparation time should be one hour for every minute of speaking.


My cynical response to Wiersbe and Ockenga is "ya, right".


And we are still waiting for some publisher to request my sermons or some biographer to research my career (LOL) - so, after 40 years of preaching I think it is time to turn over a new leaf of discipline and time management.