Tonight we hosted our staff Christmas party. It was good to have everyone over. I’m thankful for everyone who was here. It’s a great group to work with. I missed the ones who weren’t in the room though. One couldn’t come because she was sick from chemo. Another was out of town. Several were missing because they’re not on staff anymore. My sense was that when everyone arrived absence was noticed as much, if not more, than presence. It’s been a tough year that way.
I’ve broken the forty minute barrier in my sermon for the past three or four weeks. Since I’ve been at Garnett I’ve been preaching for about 20 to 25 minutes a pop. Lately I’ve been including more material and trying to flesh out some details in a more didactic way. I don’t know if this a trend or if the current material demands more time. If it continues I think our worship leader is going to organize an intervention.
At the same time I’ve been delivering longer teachings I’ve also made the transition to a stool. The first week it was hard to stay in place, but now I’m getting used to it. If you’re going to preach a long sermon I recommend doing it while sitting down. Since taking my perch I’ve had several people tell me that I’m a good teacher. They didn’t say preacher. They said teacher. In preaching class we would sometimes talk about what the difference is between preaching and teaching. Maybe it comes down to this: preaching is done while standing and teaching is done while sitting. One thing remains the same: those who aren’t listening could care less.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons