Good afternoon...I'm about to grab the second cup of coffee as I attempt to resurrect myself from the post-easter food consumption coma I think I managed to put myself into.
Kids are home from school for the week, so I'll be back to my distracted working between breaking up the periodic arguments that will occur, providing snacks every hour for my son who seems to eat more than a grown man, and tossing multiple books in their direction in hopes that they can read quietly while I attempt to work from home. In the meanwhile, here are some quick bullet point followups from the weekend:
- Really loved our Good Friday service with other area churches this year. Our worship team led the worship and I thought they did an outstanding job. There was a great atmosphere of reflection and worship as we came together to consider the significance of the cross.
- Saturday I had my second baseball practice with 8 kids and a cold, rainy day. They were remarkably cooperative despite the weather. We made it through about 45 minutes before we called it a day. Hopefully none of them are scarred for life, as in 15 years from now they're not lying on a couch somewhere saying, "Well, it all began on this miserably cold and rainy day when my baseball coach made us practice until our hands were bleeding and our lips were cracked..."
- Great day Sunday - the rain went away and even though it was cold, still a beautiful spring day!
- Though the service wasn't perfect (is it ever), I thought overall we did a good job communicating in word and song the message of hope in the resurrection of Jesus.
- I did NOT feel like the sermon was what I wanted it to be at all. Part of it is that, as a pastor, you pump up your expectations for Easter to unreasonable levels. At the same time, I didn't totally feel like I connected all the dots together in the message the way they were in my mind.
- But....I'll trust that God used the words despite the messenger - he is more than capable of doing that, I know.
- I had several good conversations after with some guests - some who had never been to New Life, and some who had been, but not for a long time. Again, I'm hoping they will connect up with us again in the future. I'll be working on follow up this week for that.
- I know we didn't hit 100 for attendance, but I'm guessing we were somewhere around 80 or so, which would be the highest that I can recall in several years.
- And I prayed yesterday morning that whether there were 100 people there or not, my greatest hope was that those who came would be impacted by the message of the resurrection. I sincerely hope that everyone there heard that it's got to be a personal thing for it to make any difference in our lives - it cannot simply be a religious observation we do once a year to have the desired effect.
- Excited about our cafe/concert night on Friday with the New Life Band (we've got to get ourselves a name or something)...hoping some people come back to have a good night with us!
- Probably won't be much blogging action this week - see note above about kids and interruptions. Have a great week - Jesus was resurrected so that you could live the life he has always meant for you to live, so get to it!
Well, your words helped me some Keith. I felt like I totally failed to deliver Sunday. I know you didn't.
The stakes are so high, that when I know my role wasn't helpful, it hurts.
Posted by: David Wilson | April 13, 2009 at 12:34 PM