Morning Off

I should pay more attention to the on-campus schedule. I am so locked into the 8 to 5 workday that I just assumed our time for the D Min program was lockstep with the normal workweek. Fortunately, it has built in breathing spaces. I am sure it is because, unlike me, most of the students live some ways away and need time to drive back after going home for the weekend.

I am grateful for the time to check in at work and make sure everything is going well there, catch up with stuff that needs my attention, and just make sure everyone is OK. Classwork this week will consist mostly of watching my classmates preach, then discussing how it worked, what might help, what was unclear. For me, this will be quite helpful since I don't preach on a regular basis.

I have never had anyone teach me how to preach to begin with. There is this idea that if you are a minister of music, you are also a preacher. I have been asked to fill in for pastors who will be away a few times, but all I knew of preaching was what I have observed over the last 50+ years of watching others, particularly my Father. No one ever told me how to pick a topic, how to study, what to be mindful of, etc. Now, having read many books on the subject, I feel as if I have some good guidelines about how to do it.

I find I really enjoy wrestling with a passage of Scripture and seeing what insight pops out. The books warned me that it would be hard to discard insights that have nothing to do with the focus of the message, and they were right. Once I discovered a new idea or thought, I really wanted to share it even when it had nothing to do with what I was talking about.

I am really looking forward to hearing my fellow students preach. They share such excellent comments on the discussion boards. I wish I had their depth of understanding of the Word. I do see clearly how my pastoral care bent does differ from the heart of a pastor who must consider all aspects of his congregation's spiritual life. Most interesting.