How to Get a Sunday Without Preaching: Part 1

I serve as the Lead Pastor at The Mount. I have been with this congregation a little over two years and (COVID notwithstanding), have thoroughly enjoyed serving there. Today I was able to do something that I, like most preachers, are not often able to do; worship without preaching.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to preach. It is one of my favorite things in the world to do. However, it is nice to have a week off now and then. On those weeks I can simply sit with my wife and family, taking in the message with the rest of the congregation. I find this to be incredibly valuable for myself as well as my people. Then, after my time off, I step in with an extra bit of pep, excited to preach once again. And in the meantime, my congregation was able to hear a voice other than mine (which is a wholly underrated and healthy activity in its own right). Despite those benefits, most preachers rarely step out of the pulpit. Sometimes that is because of the culture they serve in. Other times, the fault lays directly with the person in the mirror.

For this two-part blog series, I will refer to Sundays you will not be preaching as a Sunday Off. However even as I use that as a working definition, I have a few disclaimers:

I recognize that even if you are not preaching, you still work on those Sundays. I’ve had more than my fair share of “So you aren’t working at all today!” jokes over the years. I get it. The term Sunday Off is just easier to type than, “A Sunday where you are present but you also do not happen to be preaching.”As alluded to in the above point, this does not include Sundays where you are traveling (vacations, conferences, mission trips, etc). The assumption is that you are still on-site and with your people. Yet you are not preaching.

 

For my next post, I will address obstacles to having a Sunday Off, but I want to start by giving you ideas and options you may be able to begin making plans for.

Arrange for another staff member to preach – This may or may not apply to your context because many churches only have one staff member (if even that). Furthermore, this may involve a juggling of responsibilities for that particular Sunday. I get that this will involve advanced planning, but it should be considered.Arrange for another church leader to preach – Unless your church structure or denomination is built to address this, staff members are not the only ones who can step into the pulpit. It is entirely possible for other church leaders such as elders, deacons, ministry team leaders, etc. to fill this role. Yes, you will likely need to plan this out in advance including clearing the individual with your church leadership, preparing them to preach, etc. Of course, it is for this very type of situation that I wrote  Simple Sermon Prep . You can always put a copy of that into their hands to help them out.Arrange for a guest speaker – Sometimes an outside voice may be the best option. Is there a missionary the church is supporting who can stop in while on furlough? Is there a particular mentor or minister you had previously who could step in? How about a former minister of the church who could come back? All of these are great potential options to communicate a message to your people. NOTE : it is common practice to give an honorarium for a guest speaker, so please consider that.Arrange to swap pulpits with another local minister – You may consider this one to be cheating, but I don’t think so. Swapping pulpits with another local minister requires a good relationship between two churches, the agreement of both leaderships, and so forth, but can be very fruitful.  Essentially this involves working on at least two messages with the other minister. While I recommend planning a whole series for this purpose, two weeks is the minimum. Once the dates and titles have been established, you then plan to preach your message once with your church, then again the following week at their church. While you are not with your people this type of activity fosters unity and allows you to focus on other tasks the second week. Thus, while you still preach you have not had to spend much time prepping in advance.

 

There are certainly more unique ways to have a Sunday Off, but these are some that will fit most contexts. Who knows, maybe enough of you will respond that I can do a follow-up post based on your ideas!