Stay the Course: 5-Day Devotional for PastorsSample

Play in Your Own Sandbox

Each of us has differing habits, giftings, experiences, and education. With that in mind, we pastors must learn to play in our own “sandboxes.” God has created you in a specific way for a specific purpose, to pastor a certain congregation in a certain location. Your strategy cannot be simply to copy another pastor you admire. He may be wired differently than you or live in a completely different context. They are who they are and you are who you are, “by the grace of God” (1 Cor. 15:10).

This leads me into the pastor’s study. We are all very different and need to stay within the limits God has given us. I love talking to different pastors and finding out how they prepare for messages. I can learn and gain helpful hints that may supplement my present study habits, but I also realize that the way God has made me is so different from that of others.

Sticking to your own sandbox will also help you resist the urge to borrow a message from another pastor you like to listen to. And by “borrow” I mean “plagiarize.” I understand the temptation, but to preach what is not yours will never come from the heart and will lead your people to believe that you spent hours preparing a sermon you didn’t create. That is an intent to deceive and is not honoring to God. Yes, we all lean on other sources here and there, but repackaging a whole message falls into another category. Whenever I dip into another source with a really juicy insight, I always give credit to the source. (Our congregation knows I’m not that sharp anyway!) As the late Warren Wiersbe used to say, “I milk a lot of cows, but I make my own butter.”

Your style of speaking and preaching is another area where you may be inclined to emulate a well-known pastor, but your flock will be served better if you embrace how God has wired you.

You will be most effective when you stay in your sandbox. I know it is popular advice to “get out of your comfort zone,” but in this case, I encourage you to lean into your comfort zone as though it were a trusted friend. Your congregation will be all the more blessed for it.