A Week in Ministry . . .

I can hardly believe it, but by 1pm today my sermon was actually finished. It was nearly 1pm precisely when I completed a practice run in the sanctuary sans congregation (I almost always try to practice preaching my sermon before Sunday). This is very unusual, because normally I'm working on my sermons until sometime late on Saturday afternoon or even late Saturday evening. What makes this especially odd is that I told my wife that I was pretty sure that I would be done at that time. And then I finish, look down at my watch, and voila, I am done! More than unusual, it's also special, because that means I have a Saturday to use at my and my family's disposal (that is, barring any sort of unanticipated congregational emergency or unexpected natural disaster). I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow, especially now that it's a day off.

And overall this has been an encouraging week in ministry. We had a great business meeting on Monday evening where I discovered that one of my deacons had been having very similar thoughts on our worship service that I had been having. Looks like there will be some challenging and exciting changes up ahead. People at the meeting were wonderfully receptive, largely because of the recognition that any church needs to grow and change if it is going to be relevant to an increasingly un-churched yet still needy community.

On Tuesday evening we had our Valentine's Day supper. We planned for a maximum of 50 and had around 40+ attend, including some folks from the community who don't go to our church or haven't in years. The food was terrific, and the fellowship, I think, was even better. So often at these suppers people eat and run, but people that night stayed and chatted. We started at 6:30 and there were still plenty of peopl around more than an hour later. I can only pray that the Lord will use that occasion to encourage some to consider coming on Sunday morning.

And on Wednesday I wrote a song. That was a complete gift from God. I hadn't done this in some time and on this particular day hadn't planned on it either. I just started noodling around. It began with a few words and a chorus, and a few hours later I ended up with a song that I will sing in church on Sunday. It sort of fits the theme of the message. I'm going to try and teach it to the congregation--which is to say, I will invite them to sing along. It is a worship song, and such music usually sounds better with more than one voice.

Tonight is youth group. Unfortunately, this is one of the ministries that is really struggling in our church. No thanks to me, it suffers from a lack of attention and time. But I do find that with everything else on my plate, it is very difficult to plan a great deal. I really want our kids to grow in their faith, but it's hard, too, when half the group are siblings. I can't imagine that that is easy for them. We need more kids involved, and we need one or two people who can really take a youth ministry on. I was told by a pastor friend when we started youth group a year and a half ago: "You can't do it." By this he meant, you can't do it. You need someone else to do it, to be passionate about it, to have the time and energy to put into it. I'm beginning to see his point.

That's church life, I suppose. Areas of strength are matched by areas of weakness (or areas in need of development). But I am grateful that I am beginning to see encouraging signs. And I am grateful that there are others who see the need for the same changes. And I am grateful, right now, that I have tomorrow off before another week of ministry begins.