1. Find fresh spiritual disciplines. A conference in California has the theme ‘One Hundred Ways to Pray’. Well, find about three or four, and ’shut the door’ as Jesus said (i.e. put in a telephone answering-machine), and learn the art of relaxing, contemplative prayer.
Then, as the New Testament suggests, don’t be surprised when trials come your way. Jesus promised us trouble! So, as psychotherapist M. Scott Peck points out in his brilliant book The Road Less Traveled, when you expect life to be difficult, it is much less difficult.
2. Take regular time off. You aren’t called to work harder than your Creator.
Develop a way of being ‘through for the day’ (at least most days). Take your full four weeks’ annual leave in one stretch (and make alternative arrangements for weddings, etc.). Encourage your denomination to include two weeks’ extra, all-expenses-paid study leave each year. On your day/s off, do something very different from what you do the other days. (Wednesday or Thursday is best for preachers – away from the adrenalin-arousing Sundays). Listen to Spurgeon: ‘Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body… If we do not rest, we shall break down. Even the earth must lie fallow and have her Sabbaths, and so must we’. Jesus said, ‘Come apart and rest awhile’. (If you don’t rest awhile, you’ll soon come apart!).
3. Get proper exercise and sleep. Exercise fairly vigorously 3-4 times a week. Walk, swim, play tennis; perspire and regularly breathe deeply. Allow adequate time for sleep. Dr. Hart again: ‘Adrenal arousal reduces our need for sleep – but this is a trap; we ultimately pay the penalty. Most adults probably need 8-9 hours’ a night!’
4. Relax. The relaxation response is the opposite of the fight/flight response. Just 20 minutes a day when we’re free from the tyranny of ‘things present’ is enough to counteract the harmful effects of stress. Two ways to relax: tighten each set of muscles from your feet to your face, counting to five before relaxing them; or begin meditation by repeating a one-word or one-phrase prayer (’Maranatha’, ‘Lord have mercy’), repeat it slowly over and over and enjoy the ‘other side of silence’.
5. Join a small support/prayer group. Ministry peers will better understand your needs; a cross-denominational group will enhance trust and provide other spiritualities. Then there’s the classical discipline of ’spiritual direction’ (or spiritual friendships). Who is Paul to your Timothy? Who teaches you to pray aright, as John the Baptist and Jesus taught their disciples? To whom do you confess your sins (James 5:16)? Luther said every priest ought to have such a ‘father in God’. Congregations can help their pastor by praying more than they criticize him or her; having open communications re goals and expectations; recognizing that the pastor is human and will make mistakes like all of us; being as generous as possible financially (e.g. encouraging study leave); and protecting the privacy of the pastor’s family life.
6. Cognitive restructuring (i.e. changing one’s thinking). Take a personal audit. Reassess your goals; like your clothes, change them sometimes. Improve your self-attitudes. Learn a healthy assertiveness (e.g. by using the middle two letters of the alphabet – NO – sometimes, without apology). Know your gifts, and your limits. Face your fears; don’t avoid them by pretence, or bury them in an addiction. Above all, avoid states of helplessness: take time to develop coping strategies for difficult situations. Learn not to make catastrophes out of ordinary events (increasing paranoia – ‘they’re out to get me’ – is a sign of burnout). Be a growing person: if God has yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word, what new understandings have you experienced recently? Freudenberger suggests: ‘Discard outmoded notions. Don’t wear points of view just because you used to! Like old-fashioned clothes, they may become ill-fitting and ridiculous as time goes on’.
7. Have fun! To belong to the kingdom you have to be like little children. They aren’t bothered about piles of correspondence or running the world. They get absorbed in things, even forgetting to run their own lives! So develop a few ‘interesting interests’: buy a bird-book and identify 100 native birds; collect stamps; play indoor cricket; take your spouse to an ethnic restaurant; give each of your kids an hour a week, where you do together what they suggest; build something ; audit a course. But do something! And laugh sometimes! Did you know your body will not let you laugh and develop an ulcer at the same time? Remember, with humourist Kin Hubbard: ‘Do not take life too seriously; you will never get out of it alive!

From http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/8200.htm

• Seeing as I’m going to be speaking a talk, there’s something more natural about speaking it as I write rather than typing it.
• I’m a slow typer so it’s a lot faster.
• I have been getting sore arms from too much typing lately so it’s helping prevent that.

I’ve been doing it for nine years, with various pieces of software. The early versions of the software were a bit dodgy, but it’s pretty stable and easy to use nowadays, So I thought I’d show you a bit of a post about what I do in case you want to have a go.

If you have a PC, then go for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You just need to get the cheapest version – paying more money doesn’t get you better recognition, it just adds features that you probably don’t need.

If you have a Macintosh, then the product is called Dragon Dictate, I have an article on it here.

If you are thinking about getting it, I suggest you find a friend with it, and give yourself an hour or two one afternoon at their place to try it out.

Here is a demo of me using it, ignore the first 30 seconds or so where the sound doesn’t work!

Firstly here’s Craig Tucker’s manuscript. Full text, word for word. He’s put  what look like important parts in a box, and in blue,  but most of the talk is in black.

Secondly, the talk below is from Bryson Smith. Again, it’s full text.

These guys are two of the most precise and consistent preachers I know.  I think their manuscripts reflect this.

The next one is from Mike O’Connor. Again – full text. This is one of the clearest talk texts I’ve seen and it’s what I base my notes on. Words are bolded for emphasis. Bible verses in reverse print. Mike is one of the clearest preachers I know in terms of delivery – his emphasis of words and the tone of his voice all work together – his talk manuscript reflects this.

Now to the other extreme – Mark Driscoll – minimal notes!

(sourced from here)

Driscoll’s preaching style is also reflected in his manuscript. He’s more free in his preaching, his talks come alive with his stories and jokes, sometimes it feels like he’s taken you off on a tangent – he probably has, it  feels spontaneous.

Steve Cree’s preaching is similar. His notes show a little more structure. There’s a color coding of some kind. (what’s this Steve?)

I would say  Mark Driscoll and  Steve Cree are more captivating to listen to in terms of delivery. They are great story tellers. But, both Steve and Mark can have their ‘bad days’, where the talk doesn’t work as well as it could, or moments where it rambles for a bit long on a point. So there’s an advantage (freedom of delivery) and disadvantage (possibly not as consistent) in not being word for word.

Finally Al Stewart’s notes are below. I would have placed Al’s preaching more of the style of Bryson and Craig, yet his notes are more of an outline. Perhaps this is a function of the itinerant nature of his preaching and that he knows his talks better after giving them a few times?

The bottom line – it’s worth thinking about how your manuscript looks. It will dictate to some extent the style of your preaching.

I use full text – I find the full it helps me get a feel for the length and pace of the talk. I was pretty much just doing my sermons in one font, one size, one colour but it helped me when I  started laying out my sermons like Mike – I especially like the big black squares of bible text that help see see how closely I’m following the passage and make it easy to look up at the congregation without losing my place.

Last week in our men’s group,  in preparation for our Bible talk by Jim Ramsey on the prodigal son,  I did this bible study from Luke 15 which I wrote just beforehand.

What’s unusual about it is that it has 15 questions,  and rather than go through them one by one I said  “Let’s take a few minutes to read over all the questions and then if there is a question that you’d like us to think about,  you can pick that question and  we can all have a go at answering it”

I said ” Who’s picked a question?”

Someone said, “Um, Question i”

I said ” Why did you pick that question?”

They answered and then I gave them, and the others an opportunity to answer it.

Then I said “Who else has picked a question?”

And on we went. I think it’s one of the best Bible studies we’ve had at a men’s group,  and it went deep very quickly.

We didn’t answer all the questions but the people picked questions that resonated with them, people gave really honest and revealing answers about why they had picked that question, which led to a great discussion about what the Bible had to say about that issue.

I wouldn’t use this method every week,  I kind of stumbled on it by accident,  but I think I might reuse it again.

Often in Bible study it can be hard to go from the passage to people’s lives.  But getting them to pick a question and then asking why they picked that question went straight to their lives and then the Bible spoke right into their lives it’s hard to explain but it worked really well.