St Thomas Meditative Service

Well we now have had our second St Thomas Meditative Service. I am glad to say that I think it went well. Our turnout was not as much as the last time, but the stations for the break out time were still very well done. I gave the message at the service, our theme was Light in the Darkness. I felt pretty confident about it, I didn't even use any notes, and a few people commented afterwards that they appreciated the message. The most powerful part of the evening though, in my opinion, was the music, there was a lot of talent there. We'll be hard pressed to come up with that much talent again! I will be heading up the next one, so I've got a high bar to reach for.

Preparation

Much of being an intern is about preparation. Preparing to be a worship leader, preparing to teach confirmation, preparing to find your pastoral identity. My supervisor has been helpful in this area because he has been giving me many different resources to help in that preparation. The latest of which is "Leading Congregational Change". I've honestly only read the preface and the first chapter, but even those have been quite enlightening. It did raise an interesting question about the role of pastors though. Are pastors generally leaders who help move congregations through change, or are they managers who help maintain the status quo (if it ain't broke don't fix it)?

Which then makes me think, are our seminaries preparing us to be leaders or managers?

Moving Forward

Well even though our speaker for the Exemplary Youth program canceled, he had to have emergency back surgery, we went on with the meeting. Most people had gotten the word that the meeting was canceled so attendance was pretty low. Pastor Menke gave a short presentation on what some of the problems are, and then discussed further how those problems were present at OSEL. Those that did attend had some questions and the dialog was fruitful and seemed to convey some of their excitement about the project. I hope that this is a reflection of how the rest of the congregation feels about this as well.

Also moving forward is our Operation: Genesis program, which took a short hiatus to avoid holiday conflicts. We're all still really excited about getting something going with the young men, and I hope we can keep building on what we've got so far.

Hit the ground running

Having to hit the ground running seems to be a common theme in my life in the last few years. From moving out to the Seminary (always right before classes) to vacations, and returning from vacations it seems as I'm always having to be on the move. Sarah and I got to go home and see our families. I preached on Christmas day, which made for me having taken part in 8 services in 3 days, and then we flew out the day after Christmas. We rented a car and drove out to see Sarah's side of the family first and of course split our time pretty well evenly between her side and my side. It all went entirely too fast, I did end up losing my voice for a few days, right when I would have been preaching again had Doug not stepped in so Sarah and I could go see family (Thanks Doug!), but other than that the trip was good.

Then hitting the ground running yet again we come back to St. Paul, hop in a taxi and head back to our apartment. Sarah worked a full day, I went in for a half day (on what is normally my day off, but I needed to know what was going on) then we both were assisting the Sunday we got back. Sarah's supervisor got sick so her big day got even bigger, I was able to help out a little by picking up a few things for the evening at her church, and I stuck around to help setup for the event too. Thankfully she had a lot of good help and so she wasn't really alone and things went well.

The rest of our week is pretty busy, asides from a quick hour or two together in the evening I think we'll get to see each other Saturday...maybe. Such is the life of a clergy couple.

Godspeed.