What does a preacher do anyway?

I've been asked the question a million times - just what does a preacher do anyway, besides just working for one hour on Sunday?

Saturday (day off, right? It's a holiday weekend!) - we have a celebration for our high school graduates. Lasted about 2 hours. Our youth committee did a great job!

This past Sunday we only had one worship assembly (holiday weekend), with class at the normal time (10:15 a.m.) "Boy, Randy had a day off today!" What they don't know is that I was at the building at 7:45 a.m. to rearrange the chairs so I could get about thirty more chairs from the storeroom to allow for the one service. I then dowloaded my powerpoint slides, got the DVD I was using as an illustration all set; then downloaded the worship slides from gmail. That was all set. By now - it's about 9:00 a.m.

Saw that my secretary forgot to print the children's bulletins. I run them through the copier (both sides) and folded them. Time is now about 9:20 a.m.

While I'm doing this, the person in charge of the praise team asked me if I had a couple of minutes to help her do a mike check - she forget to tell the sound person to be there early. No problem I tell her - I've got all the time in the world!

I unlock all the doors for the building. Check the thermostat to a cool 68 - with a packed room it will get hot in a hurry.

Go to the kitchen to prepare the Lord's Supper. Our small group was in charge this month - so I go back to do that. Since we're having one service - we'll need two more trays of everything.
Time is now about 10:00 a.m.

During the class I take about five minutes to look over my sermon notes.

After class its apparent that we have a ton of guests! Need more chairs! A few guys see me getting folding chairs from the classrooms and pitch in to help!

Get a call that I'm to be in charge of the silt fence that surrounds the construction of our new building. That requires a staple gun and hammer. Got both so I'm qualified. Actually, I live just two blocks from the site ( I was NOT on the land committee!) - so I get volunteered for a lot of things. (For example, a few weeks ago I was called on to water the entire six acres with a fire hose for my Friday night's excitement!)

Monday morning (day off, right? ) I go to the building to put up the extra chairs and return th e folding chairs to their classrooms as our Christian school will need them. Have a nice picnic with a life group at a city park. I go back to the building around 10:15 p.m. to meet Won by One from Pepperdine and get them to their houses. night. They will sing for us on Tuesday Get home around 11:00 p.m.

It's good that I have a Master's Degree in Bible, otherwise I wouldn't be qualified to do these things! Actually, I'm like most preachers. A lot of what we do doesn't invovle our training. We just serve and do a lot of the day to day things that need to be done that no one will ever notice. Its not exciting work most of the time.

I do love what I do. I love ministry.

I do live for the day that all I think and worry about are preaching and people. Don't know if they day will ever come. It's a nice thought. Hey, a brother can dream, can't he?

But it does make me wonder - think Max Lucado ever sets up the chairs?