sermon

So i decided not to post my sermon but if you would like to read it I will e-mail it to you

My first sermon

Sermon number one has be preached, and I will never have to preach my very first sermon ever again. There will be plenty more firsts that is for sure, but never will it be my very first sermon. It went really well. I would like to say that I wasn't nervous at all, but we all know that just isn't true. A large portion of my family was there so that was very helpful. I started off a little shaking but as it got going I felt more comfortable. It actually felt really really good. At the end I got a standing ovation, which I'm pretty sure was lead by one of my aunts, but it was certainly unexpected.

I think part of my nerves during the week were a concern that I wasn't going to like it. That I would feel awful about preaching. I know it was by no means perfect and that there won't be standing ovations at the end of every sermon. That not everyone will be so supportive, but it still feels good. I still feel like part of God's plan for me involves me preaching. :-) I have to say that I was worried that this was going to be a big wake up call from God saying you are hearing the wrong thing, but I'm pretty sure so far I'm hearing things correctly and I'm really excited about it!

In a few days I'll post my sermon here

Service preparation

This post is going to be short, but I just have to write. My sermon is finally done. It now just has to be practiced. I can't believe I'm preaching in 8 days.

Right now I'm working on the visual presentation (my church has a very cool projection system where we put up the hymns lyrics, prayers, etc with images to go along) and the search for imagines is ridiculous. I'm looking for pictures of people or hands united together and in every single one the "united" people are segregated. In the drawing races are intermixed put in the actual photographs the people are segregated. It's the oddest thing. There was even one web site that was about being inclusive and the white people where in the front and the minorities were in the back. How inclusive is that?

Anyway, back to searching....

Sermon Writing

Well sermon writing has been a very interesting experience. I didn't really know what to expect when I started. Luckily once I got started the ideas just kept coming. It is just a matter of getting into a format/language that the congregation will understand. I don't want to give away to much of my the sermon cause I'm still two weeks away from preaching, there is a big focus on being inviting. Something that I really want to focus my ministry on.

As for preparation for the rest of the service, I never realized how much goes into it. It makes the great church services I've been to even more impressive.