Reflections on Worship, January 11

Several people have mentioned to me how much they enjoyed worship on Sunday morning, and I agree with them. It seemed to me to be an uplifting and spiritually filling time with lots of good things.

I've listened to the sermon a couple of times, and I must confess that I am impressed by its honesty. For better or for worse, what I said is basically what I believe, warts and all. Probably it was a very appropriate (though unintentional) sermon to preach on my birthday. As I said, it is my great privilege to make studying the Bible a central part of my life and my career, and it is a challenge and a fulfilling task that I really enjoy.

Some people may be under the impression that I pick passages to preach on based on an underlying agenda. My agenda tends to be quite open -- this series of sermons on Jesus' parables seems a natural component of a year-long study of faith stories. Aside from that, I tend to read around and pick passages that I think will be "fun" to dig into. (I am well aware, from my youth, that my ideas of "fun" are not always -- or often -- shared by others.) Next Sunday I will preach on "The Good Samaritan" which is a beloved parable; I picked it because I would be expected to preach on it. I picked "The Growing Seed" because I thought it would be a challenge; nobody would have noticed if I had picked another parable (and that's not an exaggeration).

Often it's that simple -- I think "that'll be fun for me and interesting for the church" and I put it on the schedule. So far, the process has worked pretty well. But occasionally I'll find that the passage requires a lot more work -- frankly, more than a week -- to adequately prepare a sermon. Because my definition of "fun" almost never means "easy."

Back to Sunday's worship. Lots of stuff just seemed fitting on Sunday. Wiggle Time was meaningful for all. The recognition of my birthday and my one year anniversary of service to the church was good -- and I meant every word that I said about Central Christian. While it is my job to work to be part of the continual transformation that is necessary in any growing church, I believe completely that Central Christian is a healthy congregation filled with loving and faithful people. And I believe that we are growing in our faith together. It is my great privilege to be here serving.