Sunday Thoughts
It's Sunday afternoon between worship services again. A couple of random thoughts.
I was sick on Friday and Saturday. The goodnews is that I'm feeling mostly better today. I'd say I'm 85%. I probably still have a small fever. The other goodnews is that I don't wait to the last minute to prepare sermons. The bad news is that I do wait until Friday and Saturday to really get the sermon in my head. This morning's effort wasn't as inspired as I like. The material was good. It always is. It's the Bible! :) But I just didn't have the energy I'd like. I realize that being a pastor is one of the few jobs in the world where soooo much of your workweek hinges on a one to two hour slot once a week. Unless you are physically unable - you have to do your thing. I was reminded of something that happened to me once while I was an intern at a church during seminary. It was my nightmare. I got a call on Saturday. The pastor is sick. You'll have to preach. I know it was expected I would do it because I was the seminary student. But I'd only preached like one time in my entire life. I was a terrible public speaker. It was probably one of the worst sermons in the history of the world.
It seems like half our morning congregation is on vacation. They've been gone for the last couple of weeks. I always worry that they are never coming back! So far - every year they have. Usually by September.
Our evening congregation has not been on vacation. Attendance has been steady. We've consistently seen between 30 and 40 people. I'm still very enthusiastic about the evening, but am feeling the need to take the next step. We need to get word out. We also need to figure out how to do evangelism in this city.
My family had lunch today with friends in the Arab quarter. It was fun. The food was great. And it was especially cool because one of the friends is Lebanese and she was able to tell us more about the neighborhood. For instance the restaurant we were at was Lebanese/Iraqi. There was an Iraqi beef dish that was just great. And the Lebanese Chicken Tauo (I'm not sure if I go the name right!) was to die for.
Anyway - gotta go get my evening sermon in my head. I'll be taking a chance this evening. Sharing something I've NEVER shared with a congregation before.
I was sick on Friday and Saturday. The goodnews is that I'm feeling mostly better today. I'd say I'm 85%. I probably still have a small fever. The other goodnews is that I don't wait to the last minute to prepare sermons. The bad news is that I do wait until Friday and Saturday to really get the sermon in my head. This morning's effort wasn't as inspired as I like. The material was good. It always is. It's the Bible! :) But I just didn't have the energy I'd like. I realize that being a pastor is one of the few jobs in the world where soooo much of your workweek hinges on a one to two hour slot once a week. Unless you are physically unable - you have to do your thing. I was reminded of something that happened to me once while I was an intern at a church during seminary. It was my nightmare. I got a call on Saturday. The pastor is sick. You'll have to preach. I know it was expected I would do it because I was the seminary student. But I'd only preached like one time in my entire life. I was a terrible public speaker. It was probably one of the worst sermons in the history of the world.
It seems like half our morning congregation is on vacation. They've been gone for the last couple of weeks. I always worry that they are never coming back! So far - every year they have. Usually by September.
Our evening congregation has not been on vacation. Attendance has been steady. We've consistently seen between 30 and 40 people. I'm still very enthusiastic about the evening, but am feeling the need to take the next step. We need to get word out. We also need to figure out how to do evangelism in this city.
My family had lunch today with friends in the Arab quarter. It was fun. The food was great. And it was especially cool because one of the friends is Lebanese and she was able to tell us more about the neighborhood. For instance the restaurant we were at was Lebanese/Iraqi. There was an Iraqi beef dish that was just great. And the Lebanese Chicken Tauo (I'm not sure if I go the name right!) was to die for.
Anyway - gotta go get my evening sermon in my head. I'll be taking a chance this evening. Sharing something I've NEVER shared with a congregation before.
