Thursdays

(Mark 6:31) And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 

 I like Thursdays.

For a pastor, Sunday is the pinnacle of the week.  It is both the best day and the worst day.  Most of my work is aimed at Sunday.  I usually have two messages (morning and evening) and a Sunday School lesson to prepare for Sunday.  Sunday is full of activity and requires physical, emotional and intellectual energy.  On Sunday I am wound up tight.

Consequently, on Monday I am wound down.  Monday is my day for taking care of loose ends left over from Sunday - making calls, sending notes - and for planning the week ahead.  It is not a good day for taking a break - I'm too tired and still have too much on my mind.  On Monday morning ALL my work for the week is not even started.  I am too preoccupied with it all to take the time off.

Tuesday is a utility day.  It is the day when I usually complete the bulk of my studying.  On Monday and Tuesday I am usually cranking out handwritten notes about the Bible passages and topics I am studying.  By the end of the day on Tuesday I want to have the text, context, structure, meaning and special features of the passage all figured out.  I will have read it in the original language and have looked up all of the more unique words.  I will know what the meaning of the passage is, and I will be experimenting with ways to preach it.

Wednesday allows even more study, but it is also taken up with the Wednesday ministries.  I usually want to have my draft of the bulletin more or less completed on Wednesday - though I won't send it out until Thursday.  I also need to think about teaching the teen group on Wednesday night - and getting prayer requests ready for the people doing prayer meeting.  Wednesday energy is mostly about Wednesday ministries - but I am still mulling over the material I'm working on for Sunday.

Then comes Thursday!  It is a blessed day!  It is far enough between Sundays that I am fully recovered from the previous one and not yet panicked about the next!  If the week is going well, I can take Thursday morning off to go to the pistol range - without fear that I am neglecting important work.  When I come into the office for the afternoon, I feel refreshed.  Thursday is my most mellow day.  (It helps if my shooting goes well - but even that doesn't matter too much.)

Friday is another busy work day.  Friday is the day to get everything all together.  Sermon outlines finished, illustrations developed, power-point presentation completed, bulletin inserts typed, etc. Monday and Tuesday are the rough work of sorting through all of the material, and Friday is the fine work of putting everything together.  Friday is the day that I am most likely to feel panic.  If things are not clicking by Friday morning, I am fretting.

See how the pendulum swings?  At Friday I start getting wound up again for Sunday.  I need to have my sermons and messages and lessons in mind.  I need to know WHAT I am going to say and HOW I am going to say it.  At this point time is running out fast!

Hopefully I get it resolved on Friday.  Saturday is my family day.  We work together on household projects, do cleaning, do the laundry, work in the yard.  I may glance at my work a few times throughout the day, but usually just for tweaking.  Then on Saturday evening, after supper, I get my computer and head back to the study for my final three hours (6-9) of work before Sunday.  I do my final edits to polish things up, finish my notes and print them out.  Then I go home to bed and go to sleep thinking about my Sunday morning message.