Time spent in the study

Fred Craddock on the importance of study in a pastor's ministry:

Time spent in study is never getting away from daily work but getting into daily work. The hours of study bear directly and immediately on who the minister is and the minister's influence by word and action. It is in the study that so much of the minister's formation of character and faith takes place. There are so many terms to describe this activity. Study is an act of obedience: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind." It is a time of worship: "An hour at study," said the rabbis, "is in the sight of the Holy One, Blessed be He, as an hour of prayer." What minister has not experienced a desk becoming an altar? It is a time of pastoral work; the whole congregation will benefit from the fruit of his labor. Study will protect the parishioners from the exclusive influence of the minister's own opinions, prejudices, and feelings. Study is getting a second and third opinion before diagnosis and treatment. No minister has to do the world's thinking over again, but every minister needs to spend time with the writings of those who have for a lifetime wrestled with matters of importance. Study gives distance on the minister's own life as well as the congregation's and there is health in that. Unrelieved intimacy smothers and distorts. (Preaching, p.70)