Sunday Morning ...

It is Sunday morning, about 6:10 AM and I am at church. That is nothing unusual, I have been here for over an hour. I like being at church for a while before anyone else arrives on Sunday. I like walking the building, looking at where things will soon take place and picturing who will be seated in that spot and praying for them and the day. I like taking an hour or so to just dink around (my phrase for mindless stuff that fills my mind too often, or maybe my phrase for enjoying doing things that aren't real urgent, anyway my phrase). It helps to get some stuff off my mind and attempt to focus on the real pressures of the day.

In just a few minutes I will go over my sermon, add a few things and take some away. I will also go into our worship area and preach the sermon to a lot of empty chairs and picture who may be there later. I will do some more adding and subtracting while I preach this run through sermon. I will go back home and get my wife between 8 and 8:15, she does a lot of behind the scenes stuff on Sundays, most days for that matter, and likes to be here early. The worship team begins filtering in around 8:30 and then the day really begins to take off. I will also work some more on Sunday School lesson and on most Sundays at least glance at what I will be teaching on Sunday evening. Today however, I will be leaving at 1:30 to head to our annual District Missions Convention and Assembly returning Tuesday night.

I am always very nervous on Sundays, and right about now start to worry about the sermon in particular. If it is a normal Sunday the phone will ring a few times before Sunday School starts at 9:30. It will be someone who is sick and can't make it looking for a sub, or a family member of someone who is already here looking for something they can't find at home, or something like those two scenarios. I will really begin walking around a lot just after 9 as more people arrive and as I get more nervous and fired up for the day. I will talk with many of them and walk right by many of them because my mind is focused on something else. Some people will understand and some will not.

I will teach my Sunday School class, we are focusing on prayer right now. I will try desperately to get them to share and understand how this applies in their life. If it is a typical Sunday I will feel as if I didn't get it done today. I will hustle to my office, get my mic on, glance at my Sermon again, grab a couple of throat lozenges and a glass of ice water and head to the worship center. I will encounter several people in the those hurried paces and hope I don't blow someone off as I move by. I will walk around the worship center greeting and talking with people until it is time for the service to begin. I will sit on the front row, outside chair of the left section (looking from the back) and heave a big sigh. We will begin singing and I will begin worrying again about the sermon. I will do announcements and later prayer, while praying through the entire time until I preach that the Spirit would really communicate today. I will look at my outline a few times and likely write a note of two on the outline. I will stride forward to preach and for the next 20 to 25 minutes go for it. I will finish, I think we conclude with a song today and I will dismiss everyone. I will head back and speak to many people, especially visitors before they run out the doors. I will move around and speak to more people for the next 20 minutes or so. I will walk around the church making sure all lights are off and lock all the doors while my wife waits patiently. Then we will head home. We will discuss the morning as lunch is finished being prepared. We will eat and then normally take a nap, sometimes I get this, sometimes I don't. Today I won't as I will be tired our delegates to the District meetings that a couple of hours away.

I need to get back to my sermon. This is a bit of a Sunday morning. Hope yours goes well.