How Often a Preacher Should Preach (03.23.23)

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Plain Bible Teaching Podcast

This week I’m joined by Kristofer Gardana, and we’re talking about preachers and how often they preach. This was prompted by an article suggesting that “pastors” should preach no more than 40 weeks a year. As we consider this in terms of a located preacher working with a congregation, we may not agree with the number of weeks, but there are advantages to having others involved in the work of preaching. It is also important to remember that there are other things that a preacher does besides preach on Sundays. We discuss all of this in this episode.

STORY – Why Pastors Shouldn’t Preach More Than 40 Weekends a Year

“If you’re a Lead Pastor, chances are you want the quality of your church’s teaching to be as excellent as possible. Likely, you are the Senior Pastor because you have a strong teaching gift, or the strongest teaching gift on your teaching team. However, I believe that if you are preaching more than 40 times a year, your effectiveness may become hindered.

“I was a Lead Pastor for 15 years, and I found that if I taught more than 35 to 40 weekends a year, many things began to suffer. Depending on your other responsibilities and the giftedness of those who step in to teach for you, perhaps you can lower it even to 30 times a year. It isn’t a hard and fast rule, but I recommend preaching no more than 40 weekends a year.

“Here are some reasons you should limit your Sunday preaching.”

You need regular breaks.

Your people need breaks from you.

Your people need to learn from others.

You need to develop other communicators.

There are other areas of church that need your leadership.

It will give you more time to develop as a great preacher. (Vanderbloemen)