Preach Magazine Issue 1 - Creativity and innovation in preaching | Page 37

COLUMN

COLUMNIST

37

KATE BOTTLEY

The Reluctant Preacher
It’s Saturday night. Other people, normal
people, are out at the pictures, or in, eating
wontons and crispy duck and watching TV,
moaning about how there’s never anything
on. I might be doing any of these things but
my mind is somewhere else.

S

aturday night inevitably forces
a decision: ‘Go and do it now or
get up early tomorrow?’ Every
week I start with the best of
intentions, to work on it and read all
week and then to write it early and
edit it.
I never do.
I could tell you it’s because I have
three churches and a job in a Further
Education college; I could tell you
it’s because I’m busy – and I am,
who isn’t? But really it’s because
preaching terrifies me. Sweaty palms,
dry mouth, butterflies in the tummy
sort of fear.
I’m an extreme extrovert, I relish
being ‘up front’. I’m from an
evangelical background, weaned on a
diet of 30 minutes biblical exegesis. I
have two degrees in theology: I know
my stuff. I am articulate,