I recently had the privilege of evaluating a young pastor-in-training who preached in two venues in our faith-family.  One thing that discouraged him was that he ran out of time and couldn’t preach some of the more important sections of his preaching portion.  Do you ever get to the end of your allotted teaching time and feel you don’t have sufficient time for key theological insights and application?  One thing I’ve noticed is that we don’t always economize time like we should.  For instance, there are two ways to approach contextual information.  One is to ask, “How much context do I need to provide in order for my listeners to get the big picture?”  I find most pastors asking that question.  Another is to ask, “How much contextual information do I need to give them in order for them to understand my preaching portion?”  The second question usually results in a significant paring of the contextual data I give in the sermon.  Economy of time takes place when I only give what is absolutely necessary in order to make sense of the preaching portion.  Preaching is too important for me to waste time.