Sunday Stuff

Man was it a sublime, but action-packed day yesterday.

It started off in a very exciting way. It was a lot of fun hearing from people who attended our college/young adult ministry's worship service. It got rave reviews and people very much enjoyed the tone and approach set forth during worship...and in a surprise of surprises, one of the sound guys recorded the whole deal! That was one of those details you often overlook in planning, and because someone thought of it, we now have a tape of the worship songs! The evening was great and it was nice hearing people compliment former teens I've discipled who are using their gifts and talents to serve our church.

Then I had a lunch with Mike and Katie. Those two are such an encouragement to me as they were some of the first teens I had the chance to serve when I got to Crossroads and now they're stepping out into all sorts of faith in God and it's inspirational just being around them. I wish they could stay, but they'll do more for the Kingdom in Portland...even if they're not even sure what they'll be doing for the Kingdom. It's simply cool to see.

Then I watched the Rangers goof up a chance to gain ground in the standings. Best of times to be in a pennant race, worst of times when they're blowing chances with time running out. We've only got a week to go.

Then a friend came over. I'm having sprinkler system issues (we think/hope as I've spent enough on plumbing this year to last a decade) and he helped diagnose the problem and offered a temporary and cashless solution. We'll see.

Then a very brief nap...just enough to disorient me for the rest of the evening.

Then, our pastor, for the first time I can remember, had to step out of the pulpit about 5 minutes into his 3rd sermon of the day, and then had one of my colleagues try to finish the same sermon off HIS notes. If you know anything about pastors, we can usually fill in on a moment's notice, but NOT off someone else's notes/text/preparation. Our pastor's been fighting off a chest cold and some medicine rocked him a bit...and I'm sure Bill will have great stories of his adventure during staff meeting on Tuesday.

And then I taught a Bible study that I couldn't have been more excited about to my high schoolers. You can get an overview from my student ministry blog Peripatetics if you're interested, but what was really cool about it was that we're in a great situation. See, God is prodding my teenagers' hearts and minds and at the same time prodding me and it's cool to be on the same page. Anyway, the end of the class was reverential silence. I'm terribly excited about the state of things in the student ministry to which I've been entrusted.

So, review of my action-packed Sunday: Good reviews, inspiring lunch, losing team, potential flood stopped, pastor fill-in, God working. Great ending to a terribly long week.