One of the greatest things a pastor can do for his own health and that of his congregation is to take regular weeks off from preaching.

I began this year, my first of full time preaching, with the goal of preaching no more than forty times. Should the remainder of this year’s preaching calendar go according to plan I will have preached exactly forty times at the end of 2013. You don’t have to be a math wiz to realize that, on average, I have one week off from preaching each month.

Everyone’s sermon preparation time differs, but I seem to average about twenty hours for sermon prep on those weeks when I preach. That is quite a good chunk of time to redeem on weeks when sermon prep isn’t a pressing task. So, the question I want to try to answer in this post is, “How can a pastor wisely redeem the time on the weeks he does not preach?” Let me suggest three things . . .

Pray. Of course, a pastor should be praying “always and for everything” (Eph. 5:20), but weeks off from sermon preparation provide a preacher with the unique ability for extended prayer. I suspect that every preacher devotes specific blocks of the week’s time to the sermon, so why not just dedicate these blocks to earnest intercessory prayer? Prayer is the first half of our job description and gives power to the other half, so use these weeks to refill your ministerial tank in prayer before the Father.

Study. A week off from sermon preparation represents an excellent time to devote your mind to matter that needs unique study. Are there any particular texts coming up in you sermon series that would benefit from detailed preparatory study? Are there any pressing theological matters unique to your congregation in which you need to solidify biblical convictions? If so, use these weeks for those specific studies. Or you might find such weeks provide wonderful opportunities to knock out several books you have toiled through for some time.

Meet. I tend to use weeks off from preaching to meet with many people from the congregation I haven’t checked in with recently. It also seems to be a good idea to schedule longer leadership or admin meetings for these weeks when they won’t suck energy from soul soon to preach.

Be purposeful and diligent with your time on the weeks you don’t preach. I often find that these weeks are usually the most busy and I think that’s a good thing. You may be “off” from preaching, but you are not “off” from ministry.