A number of people might offer compliments about the sermon, but it would be the critical remark that echoes in my mind for days on end. It was always a frustration when someone disagreed with a point or observation that I made, and my own remarks were based in hours of research, reflection, and examination of the text in Greek or Hebrew, and the critic’s remarks were usually offered off the cuff. It made me sometimes wonder, “Why do I spend so much time preparing if all of my work can be seemingly swept away with one shallow comment?” 

One of the more challenging tasks for the minister is standing in the pulpit and delivering a sermon. I once read that public speaking is feared more than death itself, but some might be under the impression that the preacher is at ease and does not fear mounting the pulpit after many years in the pulpit. While I can’t speak for others, personally, I still, after twenty-seven years in the ministry, have a degree of apprehension when I step into the pulpit on any given Sunday. After a few minutes in the pulpit, though, my anxieties usually subside, I can settle down, and focus on preaching the word. But this doesn’t mean that my anxieties and fears are permanently banished from that moment forward.

When a preacher closes his Bible and offers the pastoral prayer, that moment, in many ways, is when the fun begins. The pastor leads the closing hymn, offers the benediction, and then descends the pulpit and heads to the back of the sanctuary to stand at the back door and great people as they leave. It’s when you stand at the back door that you can be filled with anticipation, “Did people appreciate the sermon?” But you can also be filled with a small degree of fear, “Did people think the sermon was terrible?” Granted, these aren’t all-consuming thoughts, but I suspect they do cross the minds of preachers as they greet their congregations. 

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