posted by Scott Newton Smith

Up front disclaimer:  We’re not endorsing nor bashing Driscoll here at The Sermonators.  We’re not groupies for any particular preacher "celeb."  You won’t find us pushing a particular preacher, nor a group of them.  That’s not what this site (or our show) is about.  Our job is to find and develop good content for busy pastors.

So, Mark Driscoll.  Love’im or hate’im, there is something to learn from Driscoll’s experience in regards to our primary topics of time management and preaching management in ministry.  The following sound bite is worth a listen.

Here’s the background:  At a recent Resurgence Conference, Mark Driscoll, preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA indulged an interesting Q&A session about the more practical aspects of his ministry.  I know that most of our audience here are not pastoring mega-churches as he is, nonetheless we get some good insights from his answers.

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Posted by Joel Southerland

One thing I have noticed over the years is that a great preacher rarely gets dismissed from his church or gets asked to leave (of course there are always exceptions). In conjunction with that, the pastor who accomplishes much for the Church and Kingdom rarely runs into serious trouble.  Now, it doesn’t mean they will not have trouble - all pastors have church trouble - it’s part of dealing with people. But, there is a difference between SERIOUS church trouble and everyday church problems.

If a pastor is a dynamic preacher that feeds the flock in a way that leaves them wanting more he will develop such a following that it becomes near impossible to “mount a movement” against him. 

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Download mp3 or click the play button above to stream audio.

In this episode of The Sermonators, we discuss five tips to bulletproof your study time each week.  Making sure that you block uninterrupted time to do your sermon preparation each week is crucial for effective preaching.

We promised the script for the phone message that Southerland (Joel) leaves on his cell phone as a "temporary absence" message while he is in his study.  It reads like this:

"Hi this is [your name] and it is [date] and you have caught me in my study. I’m not able to take calls right now, so if it is an emergency you can call the church office at [your church phone number]. However, I will be returning phone calls later on, so if you would like, leave me a message and I will call you back later in the day. Or, you can email me at Pastor AT [whatever your church] DOT [com, net, org or we-hope-not-gov] & I will be checking those occasionally. Thanks for understanding and have a blessed day."