A few months after I got to my current church, I had a conversation with a member who was asking me about what I thought about public speaking. I told her that I love it (preaching), but that I find it hard to feel present throughout the entire sermon; it feels, I said, like my mind isn’t quite with me, and that it is hovering above myself sometimes. Its gotten better over time, but even now I’m not always sure I’m all there.

That’s okay; the theology is that its not my words which contain the Word heard by the congregation; but rather the Spirit uses my words and makes them efficacious with the hearer, and thus makes them vessels of the Word. But still I’d rather feel more like I was more there than I sometimes do…

Apostle John has a great post about how he day dreams during his sermons. I think this is something like what I experience, though he’s more blunt about what he’s thinking about. Thanks, AJ, for your thoughts. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who finds it occasionally normal to have my mind wonder in the pulpit.