In this report, I want to do something unusual: I want to describe what happens in a “typical” day for me. As hard as I work and as relentlessly as I push myself, you’d be surprised how many times people ask me, “What exactly do you do with all that time that you have?” As those who support me, you certainly have a right to know where my hours go, so I’ll make an attempt. I hope you’ll understand, of course, that no two days are alike. Each is a different mix of the activities I’m going to describe. But maybe it’ll give you an idea of what Gary Henry’s days are like.
Daily Bible study and prayer. I begin each day with about an hour of personal study time and prayer. I dare not neglect this priority, or the work will become empty and meaningless. But this takes time, seven days a week.
The daily emails. I call these the “dailies” because they have to be done seven days a week. At present, there are four different daily emails (as well as one weekly, and one monthly) that people can subscribe to on my website. Every day of the week, it takes about half an hour (if I have no interruptions) to get these ready to go out the next day.
The mobile app. Every day, I have to check the app on several different devices (Apple, Android, etc.) to make sure everything is working as it should, and when something is broken, I have to get it fixed quickly.
The website. Every day, there is maintenance work that has to be done on WordPoints.com. Now that the website has so much content (123 pages, 2,283 posts, 2,242 images, etc.), it takes work on the “back end” to keep things running smoothly. And I have to make sure that the daily content is feeding out to the various social media, etc.
The writing of “Walking in Christ.” It would be nice if writing this book was all I had to do, but it is not. So, at present, I am struggling to get three or four pages written per week. On a typical day, I devote 3–4 hours to this writing.
Correspondence. My writing has generated a huge amount of email correspondence, some of it very substantive in nature. I fall helplessly behind in taking care of even critical correspondence, but this is a part of my life each day. I know all preachers deal with correspondence, but just try being a writer for 20 years and see how your life changes.
Reading and research. For topics that I am currently working on, there is always a lot of reading, research, and just plain “thinking” that has to be done before I can even sit down to write. Some may say this is not work but simply “preparing” to work, but because of the kind of writing I do, the background work is not optional. It has to be done.
Some days, things come up that I do in the Lord’s work that are not on the above list, obviously, but the list will suggest what my daily “schedule” is like. I find that the challenge of what I do is not only to do the work but to hold up under the daily pressure and “every-day-ness” of it. Sometimes the relentless nature of it is hard to bear (like Chinese water torture, with an incessant drip, drip, drip). So I pray constantly, and I hope you’ll pray with me, that my physical and mental health will not break under the strain. No, I do not try to take on the entire burden at once — I couldn’t survive if I didn’t concentrate on doing just the “next thing” in line to be done, one task at a time. But even approaching it that way, it’s a hard lifestyle. So thank you for supporting me financially and for just “being there.”
Gary Henry — WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
WRITING GOALS
Pray with me that I will be given the ability to finish these works
- Walking in Christ — Book 6 in the WordPoints Daybook Series. Target: November 2025.
- Going Home — Book 7 in the WordPoints Daybook Series. Target: November 2028.
- Seeking God in the Psalms — a 52-lesson study — theme for each week, studies for Monday-Friday.
- Ecclesiastes — a full-scale commentary on the text of Ecclesiastes.
- Encountering Christ — what the Scriptures teach about Jesus Christ . . . and why we should believe it.
