Back in the Saddle Again

This morning I led the worship service at FUMC Oshkosh. It gave Pastor Steve an opportunity to take an extended vacation. The service was typical of a holiday weekend, with the congregation relatively small. It was nice to Christa joining me as the liturgist for the service; folks out there really got a kick out of that.

As I prepared the sermon for today's worship service, I was beginning to implement some of the ideas that I learned from my books on sermon writing. I felt like today's sermon had a clear message and was better organized. The weird things was that when I actually preached the sermon, I was sweating profusely. Typically, I only sweat like that when I'm nervous (which I wasn't) or when I perceive something isn't going well. I thought it went great, but my body disagreed.

The more I read and observe, the more I look forward to having my own church with an opportunity to lead worship and order the service as I would like. The readings I am doing offer so many cool ideas I would like to try out. One day, that opportunity will hopefully come.