Up until the month of May, I was often a Saturday sermon writer. But May brought some big changes in my ministry; on Pentecost Sunday I became the “Shared Minister” between two Disciples congregations in Northeast Oklahoma. The churches are just far enough away from one another that attendance at both every Sunday morning isn’t feasible, so each week I record the sermon and provide it to the church I won’t physically be present with. This schedule goes back and forth, though on 5th Sundays we do combined worship together. Life and ministry being what they are, I recorded sermons for weeks before a single video was used. The first week, one of the churches lost electricity due to a terrible tornado and so no one watched the video. The second week, we did a combined service because said electricity was still out, so no one watched the video. The third week, one congregation did get the video to run, but technical difficulties with the Facebook livestream caused issues. The fourth week, the other congregation got the video to run, but it stopped working in the last five minutes! I was starting to get very strong, “They have ears, but they don’t hear” vibes from the whole experience. Here I was dutifully recording with my ring-light and teleprompter smartphone app and editing on iMovie, to no avail!

But I’ll let you in on a secret: no matter the technical difficulties or extenuating life-circumstances, it is pretty wonderful to be done with my sermon by Thursdays. I can read books! I can stay present with my family during weekends! I can go out to things on Saturday night without The Sermon™ weighing on my mind.

I’m not telling you this to brag; I’m sure some of you are abjectly horrified that I’ve been writing last-minute sermons for 11 years. I’m telling you this because I want you to know: you can change your sermon prepping/writing/preaching habits. If you feel stuck in a certain style of preaching – you aren’t. If you feel trapped by bad time-management skills – you aren’t. There is nothing inevitable nor immutable about the habits you and I establish when it comes to the work of preaching in our ministry settings. Did it take a drastic shift in my schedule and responsibilities to drive this change? Sure! But this experience has been a good reminder to me that the sensation of “treading water” in the pulpit was an internally enforced limitation. We are not obligated to continue preaching in the style we were taught in seminary. We are not bound to using note cards or manuscripts or memorizing sermons because of a book we once read. We are not doomed to late-night Saturday internet searches for good sermon illustrations.

Friends: consider how you are feeling hemmed in by your preaching process. Then have the courage to imagine what liberation you could feel instead. I mean, isn’t the gospel supposed to be good news? Even for us?

Published in the July 2024 issue of For the Messengers

Rev. Elizabeth Grasham is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She currently serves as the Shared Minister of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Claremore, OK and First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Nowata, OK.  Rev. Grasham is married to Gene, with whom she parents their blended family of four children and three cats.