From my weekly Monday column at Zondervan’s EngagingChurchBlog.com. This one’s on Andy Stanley’s new book, Deep & Wide, and is for anyone who teaches in the Church, whether lead pastor or small group leader.
It’s Monday morning and if you’re the lead pastor, or anyone else in ministry, you’re enjoying the day off to rest and recuperate from a packed day of preaching and pastoring.
But then Tuesday rolls around and you’re confronted with the dreaded specter all ministry teachers face: The Blank Page.
If you’re a student pastor then you’d better get to work, because that Blank Page has to be filled pretty quickly in time for Wednesday night festivities—though I’m sure you started that last week, right? If you’re the main teaching pastor then you’ll be living with that Blank Page all week until it’s formed into something that’s punchy, provocative, and preach-worthy. Even if you’re a small group leader who’s teaching through pre-packaged small group material, you still have your own notes to make to fill in the gaps and shape the study to meet your community’s needs—so you have your own Blank Page work to do.
As a person in ministry each week you’ve got a Blank Page Dilemma. That Dilemma isn’t so much how you’re going to fill it, but what you’re going to do it. What are you going to do with that Blank Page to challenge the thinking of your people; to encourage their life through trials and pitfalls; to provoke your people toward becoming active, fully devoted followers of King Jesus?
