Preachers: Get Ready on Friday

For years now I've tried to discipline myself on Saturday nights so that I'm ready to preach on Sunday. This means avoiding certain activities, resting, and getting mentally prepared for the next morning. While this is important, it turns out that I may be a day late.

Darrell Johnson recently gave a series of lectures at Heritage Seminary. In one of the lectures he mentioned that the key preparation day for high-performance athletes is actually two days before the big event. While preachers aren't high-performance athletes (or are we?) the same principle seems to apply. The amount of rest you get on a Friday night, for instance, is going to have a big impact on how alert you feel on Sunday.

If this is important enough for a race or a game, maybe it's worth thinking about for us as well.

Enjoy tonight - but figure out a way to spend Friday nights so that you're mentally and physically prepared for Sunday when it comes.

Comments

[Michael Krahn]

Not sure if I qualify as "high-performance" but I am a competitive runner. I'll challenge Darrell's assertion a bit.Race day performance is determined far more by how hard you train and how much you rest/recovery time you get during your training than by how much you rest immediately preceding the race.Pre-race rest IS important, but 12 hrs of sleep two nights before the race won't make up for the 6-hours-of-sleep nights you've been putting in for the previous two weeks.His point is still valid but I think there's more to be squeezed out of the metaphor.

[Jon]

I've found that a crazy Friday has a huge impact on my ability to function well on Friday. For this reason I've adopted and guard a Friday sabbath. (Speaking of which...I need to get out of this portion of my computer! This is getting too close to not resting!) I'm far more prepared to minister on Sunday than if I took Monday off.