Sunday Sermon and Thoughts
Here is the text of the sermon I preached yesterday. And here are some thoughts from church...
(1) Learned early on Sunday that Welmer will be around on 27 December! That's great news and makes life a lot easier on me. So it allowed me to relax a bit. We were worried that none of our musicians would be present.
(2) Arrived to find that someone had knocked over the Christmas tree and broken the stand. :( The good news is that Laura and Chris fixed it. :)
(3) It's great to be back to the season leading up to Christmas. Enjoyed Thelma, Chris and Pat leading in worship in the morning.
(4) Our Annual Christmas Caroling on the Riverboat filled up!!! Should we rent a second boat?
(5) Something weird has happened in the morning worship. We made a small change and all of a sudden - it's like there is an additional 5 minutes in the service. I'm not feeling pressed for time AT ALL in the mornings anymore (or at least I haven't for the last few weeks).
(6) I was in a Church Council meeting from 12:30 till 4:30 yesterday. The longest church leadership meeting we've ever had since going to a new format. It was a productive meeting. We talked about hiring a part time pastoral assistant. The church financials. Renewal of my contract. The 2010 Budget proposal (which looks awesome!). Improving Member involvement through better workplan. And finally we talked about the 2010 Church Council. Lots of great people will take a break from Council next year. We trust lots of great new people will arrive and take up the leadership.
(7) Enjoyed visiting with friends before the Evening Service. Mark led perhaps the best worship set we've done in the evening.
(8) The highlight of the day was the joy we had in Baptizing Rukshan! It's always great to celebrate new faith.
(1) Learned early on Sunday that Welmer will be around on 27 December! That's great news and makes life a lot easier on me. So it allowed me to relax a bit. We were worried that none of our musicians would be present.
(2) Arrived to find that someone had knocked over the Christmas tree and broken the stand. :( The good news is that Laura and Chris fixed it. :)
(3) It's great to be back to the season leading up to Christmas. Enjoyed Thelma, Chris and Pat leading in worship in the morning.
(4) Our Annual Christmas Caroling on the Riverboat filled up!!! Should we rent a second boat?
(5) Something weird has happened in the morning worship. We made a small change and all of a sudden - it's like there is an additional 5 minutes in the service. I'm not feeling pressed for time AT ALL in the mornings anymore (or at least I haven't for the last few weeks).
(6) I was in a Church Council meeting from 12:30 till 4:30 yesterday. The longest church leadership meeting we've ever had since going to a new format. It was a productive meeting. We talked about hiring a part time pastoral assistant. The church financials. Renewal of my contract. The 2010 Budget proposal (which looks awesome!). Improving Member involvement through better workplan. And finally we talked about the 2010 Church Council. Lots of great people will take a break from Council next year. We trust lots of great new people will arrive and take up the leadership.
(7) Enjoyed visiting with friends before the Evening Service. Mark led perhaps the best worship set we've done in the evening.
(8) The highlight of the day was the joy we had in Baptizing Rukshan! It's always great to celebrate new faith.
