The After Action Report

Well, I gave my sermonette to the folks at the nursing home yesterday.  I was as nervous as a “long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers”.  I was only asked to talk for about ten minutes, I am not sure that I talked that long.

Those of the adults who were there with our youth from church seemed to like it.  I didn’t make any really bad word choices.  I talked about Faith using Hebrews 11:1 as my starting point.

I came straight home after the service was over and prayed for myself, I guess you’d say.  It was a really neat feeling.  I think that I can do this again.  I think that I can do it better when I do it again.

I think that the one problem that I had, was trying too much to fit into the requested time slot.  It seems as if most “preachers” struggle with that.

My talk wasn’t long enough for me to get used to being in front of the crowd (and there was quite a crowd there).  I didn’t count them, but suppose that there was at least thirty or so.

Overall it was a definite positive experience.  One I look forward to repeating a lot.

My First “Sermon”

Sermonette would probably be more like it.  I got a call from our Youth Pastor, Lisa, on Thursday.  On one Sunday each month, she leads a group to a nursing home not far from our church to have a worship service.

My take on how she asked me seems funny to me.  She said something like, “So you want to preach?”  I told her about my conversation with the District Superintendent a couple of weeks ago.  One of the questions he asked me was what do you think would be your greatest challenge.  I told him the preaching would probably be it.

I base that on my experience of being a high school chemistry student. I had two of the best high school chemistry teachers in the world.  They loved their job and it showed.  They did their job so well that when I graduated, I only looked at the degree I would need to teach as a mere inconvenience.  I thought that I could do their job right then!

It was only after completing my degree and starting my career that I realized how hard the job of being a teacher is.  I think that it really takes about five years before one can get a grasp of what it is to be a teacher. (I hope it doesn’t take me as long for my next career!)

Oh, well, tomorrow is the day.  I have an idea what I want to say and how I want to say it.  I have it printed.  It is only supposed to be about ten minutes.  What I have probably won’t take that long.  I will write more after it happens to tell you my impressions.

A learning experience

So, this coming Friday will be the end of the first month of retirement.  Since I haven't ever done this before, I don't really know how things are going. 

I do know that I like the idea of not having to be anywhere at a given time.  Last week I had to replace a dryer.  I did it beginning at 9:00 pm.  Finished at about 10:30 pm, still washed and dried a load of clothes before going to bed.  Replacing the dryer wasn't fun, but being able to do it when I wanted to was.

I have had quite a few former students (who are now in college) find me on Facebook.  This is really neat.  I feel as if what God wants me to do is to be a minister to college age students.  Maybe this is the first step.  May be it doesn't mean anything.

As always I covet your prayers and look for your comments.

Moving Ahead

So I spent most of the day yesterday working on what we used to call “paperwork”.  Now such things are done online through dedicated web portals and other Internet-related media.  I think that I like this better because usually I’d have to write things with pen or pencil and paper.  I have really lost the ability to write legibly, so most of what I do nowadays that I want to be able to read is done on a computer. 

One of the things that I was doing was filing income taxes.  I did this so that I could file a FAFSA.  This is another in a long line of acronyms developed by some branch of our Federal government.  It is one part of a plea for funding for my seminary education.  The other part is an institutional form for Asbury Seminary. 

In order for a person to become Ordained in the United Methodist Church, there is a two-prong process.  Getting accepted into Asbury is only one part of the process.  Parallel to this is another process supervised by the Florida Conference of the UMC.  I have begun this process.  My next step is to meet with the District Superintendent.

I emailed him earlier this week, then followed up with a phone call late in the week and I’m hoping for a call and an appointment next week.  My pastor thinks the next step is for me to have a pastor/mentor assigned to me.  Then this person and I will work through some kind of workbook or notebook. 

It still seems amazing to me that God would want to use me as a pastor.  I do know that this is what He wants for me, but I really don’t know why.

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