Preacher's Block

This preaching tip was shared by Preacher’s Block co-founder, Hunter Bethea. If you’re interested in joining the most focused preachers in the world and getting these tips sent to your inbox every week, sign up here.

Even though an innkeeper is never mentioned in the Bible, he’s a popular character in many retellings of the Christmas story. I think he gets a bad rap, but there is a lesson we can learn from the fictional innkeeper, especially as pastors: sometimes we can be so focused on making room for others that we forget to make room for Jesus.

My hope in running Preacher’s Block is that you’ll choose to set aside intentional, distraction-free time to focus on your most-important task (typically a sermon) so that you can preach better sermons, but even more importantly to me, not let your work bleed into your other important tasks and callings. This time of year, when we’re pulled in so many directions, we can easily let our sermon-prep time crowd out our family time and our preparations for others to worship crowd out Jesus from our own lives.

Resist that temptation. Yes, make space for others to encounter Jesus. But don’t forget to make room for Him in your life too.