Dee,

A little while back you offered a post asking about the use of manuscripts.  One day I'm going to mature and speak from a "manuline" like McKinley.  But the other day I read this from Murray's biography of Lloyd-Jones:

Initially at Aberavon he attempted to write both sermons for Sunday in full--an average of nine, ten or more pages, closely written on both sides.  The reason for the full manuscript was not a concern for a literary form, still less for something to read in the pulpit, it was rather to be sure that he was clear in the substance of his message.  He believed that a preacher should know what he was going to say from the beginning to the end.  Within in weeks, however, he found it impossible to write two sermons in full and this his settled habit for many years became to write one sermon fully, and the other--though he thought it out in detail--only to record in outline.  At first the full sermon manuscript went with him into the pulpit, but he soon found that practice inhibiting, and his custom became to read the fully-written sermon through some three times, and then to have no more than an outline of it with him when he was preaching.  In his judgment, the evening sermons (which were more specifically intended for non-Christians) were the hardest to prepare; it was therefore generally these which were written in full.  Once or twice when, relying on his 'feeling' for a text, he preached with an inadequately thought-out plan, and failed miserably.  Generally his experience concurred with that of Henry Rees, one of the Methodist fathers who, when asked which of his sermons had been most honoured of God, replied, 'The ones I prepared most carefully'. (p. 154)

There you see a man adapting and changing but also maintaining a relentless focus on preparation. 

While reading the Murray biography, I was stunned to read that the common practice in Wales when Lloyd-Jones began his preaching ministry was to grant 13 Sundays away for the minister.  Essentially three months could be used by the pastor to labor or minister elsewhere or to entertain guest preachers when they came.  I'm not sure how they arrived at 13 Sundays, but that was a bit surprising.  But even so, in his first twelve months in the pastorate at Wales, Lloyd-Jones preached at 54 different places in Wales!  That's 54 places/locations, not even 54 sermons of which there could have been more.  Murray comments: "Such was the additional work of his first year in the ministry, and thereafter, for half-a-century, no year was to be so quiet!" (p. 183)

So, here's my two-fold question, especially for Matt who talks these things through with churches all the time:

1.  Any counsel as to how a church should arrive at how often/little their main preaching pastor should be out of the pulpit?  I assume you'll say, "It depends."  And it does.  But depends on what factors?

2.  How would you have counseled Lloyd-Jones about accepting/declining speaking invitations that take him away from his new charge?