I do not know of a single minister in a substantial sized church anywhere who maintains a healthy preaching habit, who does not limit his hours in the counselling room. I don't know of one.
They start saying things like, "I have so many hours per week for counselling. Once those hours are filled, apart from crises, I don't take anybody else on. Full stop. If I can't refer them, I'm sorry but there's only so many hours left. And I cannot rob 200 people in order to try to save 1."
Somehow or rather, as part of our commitment to preaching, however much counselling we do, once we've agreed to the number of hours, apart from crises, you draw a line. Or else your preaching becomes flatter and flatter and staler and staler. And the pressure, the pressure of the immediate gradually squeezes out the importance of the transcendental.
From (Time: 14:51-15:47) of
The Primacy of Expository Preaching, Part 1
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