Whether or not I am preaching, I get up as early as I can on Sunday mornings. It’s a time to prepare for worship. I make coffee and then sit down. Some Sundays I complete that day’s Bible reading. Sometimes, there just isn’t enough time before my family wakes up.
What I do, though, is write out my notes for my pastoral prayer. I consider the news that will be on the minds of the congregation. I consider the situations in their own lives that will be distracting them as they try to listen to whoever is preaching. With those things in mind, I write out my prayer. Sometimes it is in bullet points to be worked through during that slot in the service. Sometimes, as today, I write it out fully formed. When appropriate, I will pray out big theological truths.
We are only saved because Jesus is fully God and fully man. God is absolutely sovereign over everything, even if we don’t yet understand how to reconcile that with the tragedies we see playing out each day. Salvation is real, despite my daily failings to rightly live out my faith.
It’s in the pastoral prayer that I try to teach theology to a people who do not see a use for theology.
I write out my notes for leading the Lord’s supper. Today, I’ll be reading from Romans 5:1-11. My goal is not merely to lead Christians to the table but to lead the unbelievers in the room to the foot of the cross; to explain why we instruct them not to take of the elements. I exhort them to ponder what they are hearing and to believe.
By now, the house is waking up and it’s time to make more coffee.