Reflections on Preaching

So, I preached my first sermon last Sunday, and I thought I'd post some dot-point reflections and some things I heard and learnt preparing, and some feedback I've been given so far.

1. Preaching a whole book of a Bible is hard.

2. Yet, preaching the Psalms is a joy in the future I will always look forward to.

3. Mannerisms are welcome.. My friend Nick told me he was scared to hear the 'Preacher Alan' so when it turned out 'Preacher Alan' didn't exist, he was glad.

4. Mannerisms are not welcome.. when it is putting your hand in your pocket.

5. Preaching with Mic in hand is not ideal for me. If I don't have both hands, I can't communicate with them very well at all. Hence the hand in pocket.

6. Mikey says that newbies either tend to be over-prepared.. or under-prepared. I learned I'm one of those under-prepared sort.

7. Preparation - "Spend more time in the text!" - Thanks bro ;-)

8. Memorising, heading out for a day/half day, and meditating on the scripture you are preaching is invaluable. God taught me much when I was trying less to be intellectual and more prayerful.

9. Visuals (Powerpoint and Video) are not necessary for a sermon. Well it seemed that way.

10. "Once you've got up there you'll love it, you'll be hooked."

11. Preaching to your pastor and two of his kids in their living room seems like it could prepare you for any mid-sermon situation. (This is but a theory, I'm yet to have it tested on me)

12. Full script does in fact work for me. Eventually I suspect it will be a hybrid of full-script and dot points, but there is something real cool about expressing something with full intention.

If you're interested, the sermon can be found here - I would love any feedback (all forms of constructive feedback), you can share in the comments, or drop me an email.

If you're wondering about the 'sans-baby' comment - a mum at the church was speaking prior to me beginning, and her bub was particularly drawn to the black toy mummy seemed to be trying to eat, and wanted a try too. ;-)

Doing this first sermon was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life! It is certainly something God willing I would like to do more of, and really desire to improve at, and grow in. I was blessed to have this opportunity, thank you God, Wellspring and the Resonate team. :-)

Not everyone can plant the trendy church..

Australia needs more churches.

Australia has an ageing population (eg. no. of old people > no. of young people).

So, who's planting the churches in the retirement villages?

Only a little sin

The strength of accountability..

..and the lie of the little sin.

No sin is too small to seek support from a brother/sister in Christ, as no sin is too small not to, in some way, affect the body of Christ.

Hearing a brother say to me today "I heard nothing from you about that, so I stopped praying after time" was quite profound. We need always be sharing with one another, so we can be encouraging and praying for one another.

readeral took the plunge less than 5 seconds ago..

..from web

So I jumped to my death from the internet.

or not.

but I might as well have done.

I just joined twitter.

Some thoughts on engaging my generation.

My generation is highly visual.
1. We use our eyes as our dominant sense, as our ears tend to be full of iPod.
2. For the same reason, our eyes are all the more important for communication, be it with Internet chat, or seeing a friend or acquaintance in the street.

My generation is also over stimulated.
1. Video games and Cinema experience are designed to engage many senses, and technology is growing in this area.
2. I read somewhere recently that young people tend to watch TV and use the internet at the same time. This is now the norm.
3. In order to catch our full attention, much entertainment or information must have that Cinema experience.
4. Making the effort to sit down and read a book has become much more difficult in my life time, as the internet has grown. This, I would argue, is because the internet provides the opportunity for a 'deeper' engagement through video/audio and graphical/text based information all at once.

Some questions:
1. What does this mean for the preacher? Does he adapt these growing mediums? Or does he provide an alternative to the trend?
2. What does this mean for the worker charged with Pastoral care? Must something change to allow proper relationships to develop?
3. What does this mean for leaders of praise and worship in our church? (recognising that this is broader than music, I in fact am intending to ask this more as a focus on singing praises to God)
4. What does this mean for the evangelist? What mediums should they be using to spread the good news?
5. How can we encourage our young people* to spend the time in the Bible, with full attention?
6. How can we encourage our young people* to spend time in prayer, with a proper focus on God?

*yes, I am 'young people', and I struggle with these.

A lesson in patience.

A year ago, when I started this blog, it was with the hope of recording my thoughts and gaining support for a trip to Cambodia, as part of my home church's desire to serve our brothers and sisters in another country, and to voice some things related to faith, and blog my thoughts before commencing an apprenticeship in Ministry.

In the year just passed, much has changed, and I have spent a lot of that time in uncertainty.
The major effect of all of this is that 4 months ago, I decided to put my trip to Cambodia on hold. I felt that God was no longer directing me down that path, at least not in the interim.
This was backed up by the fact that I left my job in September and was not finding work to raise the money.

I couldn't understand what on earth God was doing - my finances were in a quandary, my personal relationships were changing, everything I was excited for was falling out from under me, and my passion for sharing the Gospel was proving difficult to maintain. Somehow I felt I had lost all direction and drive for anything. Applying for jobs was anything but encouraging, and as the papers reported more and more job losses and worsening financial conditions, I found myself almost giving up.

But God's grace was still evident to me.

I was given the opportunity to pay off debt through volunteer work over the summer. At a very crucial point a brother and sister in Christ, with the purpose of using what they had for God's glory, generously shared with me and supported me financially. People were letting me know daily that they were praying for me. There was no way God was going to let me forget that He was exercising His will in my life.

Eventually, I came to the realisation that God was teaching me patience, and joy in patience. I found myself one afternoon, reading Matthew 6 and 7, and really resonating with what Christ was speaking of, and fighting off suggestions of doing this TAFE course, or that school-cleaner job, I stuck to what I firmly believed, that God was going to provide the job that he had for me.

God provided a job opening through my brother.
3 weeks before the ad was put out, I got a heads up about 5 positions being made available in a department at AAMI. I spent a day praying, preparing my documents, and hand delivering them.
I waited.
and waited.
I heard that the job applications were above 200 people. I waited. I got a phone interview, and felt encouraged.
Then I heard 350 people had applied. I had resigned to the fact that if it was not what God had intended for me, then I would return back to University, intending not to be idle for the year.
The day after I went in to speak to the education faculty, nearly 6 weeks after my application went in, I got a phone call and was invited in for a face to face interview.
The interview was fantastic, and encouraging.
I heard the day before uni started that I had the job. I was ecstatic.

Through those months, I had learned a few things:
- I realised that God had a season for me of unemployment and that it was a gift that I could rejoice in.
- I learned much about humility, and accepting gifts from others.
- I learned that patience doesn't mean stopping, but in accepting the delay, continuing to seek and pursue God's will.

I know there will be seasons like this in the future, and this was just the first of many.
There is much more to the story which I will happily share over a coffee, but this post is already beyond a Tim Challies post, and getting through it has probably been a test of patience for you too.
But may God be glorified. I know that His promises are true, and my trust in Him is growing daily.

New Years Resolution

Be bold, go for it and try follow a plan to read the bible in a year.
That's what I'm gonna do.
Find some plans Here

They have a web link that updates every day, you can get the readings in RSS feeds, via email, it can give you an iCal upload, Mobile phone (presumably only in the US) and you can print them out.
A few different plans to go for, check it out.

EDIT: What's more, for those using iCal, it starts the plan on the day you upload the iCal files.. so no catching up to do, and no unmotivation to start just because you're starting halfway though a plan.. neato!

Somehow I deleted this post.. It's back now :-)