I had some very nice feedback by two men I respect after I preached yesterday.  It was constructive and I appreciated it a lot.

But the most important feedback I had was from my wife.  She said, “In my eyes, you became a pastor today.”

Nothing else matters.  If she believes in me and God is with me, I can do anything.

Today I preached my second ever sermon.  It was entitled, “Faith That Saved A King” and it focused on the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den.  It is actually part of a series of messages focusing on the book of Daniel.  I got to do this one while Philip was away in Mississauga, participating in the 10th anniversary of Grace Brethren Canada (and Grace Community Church).

The second time was definitely the best.  I made some goofs in the first one and managed to straighten them up in the second time through.  I enjoyed giving the message because I feel like it accomplished two objectives - first it stayed on target, driving home the theme “God is King”, and relied primarily on the text of Daniel.  But second, I was able to draw out a message about missional living.  I talked a lot about what faith is, how it is built, and what effect it can have on the people around you when it is lived publicly, “in the open”.  It was a message seeded by my own tendency to keep my faith to myself, and also in dealing with some of my Christian co-workers, who felt the same.  I wanted to encourage people to live openly as Christians, so that God may be glorified even amongst those who do not know him.  I really feel strongly that you can’t argue someone into faith in God, but when God works in your life and people find out about it, they are faced with a choice - either try to explain away Gods’ work as coincidence, or reckon with the God that loves them, that they have ignored, shunned, or hated.  It is a choice that you cannot set up for them.  It must come to them.  And it comes when you live out your faith in front of them.

If you would like to give the message a listen please feel free.  I have made it available as a podcast below.  Please feel free to offer constructive criticism in the comments - I am still very much aware I have lots to learn in terms of presenting a message.

Here’s a link to the sermon, in mp3 format.  It’s 40 minutes long, so the dl is about 46 megs.

Wow.  Now that ministry is more than just something casual for us, we are really starting to feel it on Mondays.

When I say “we” I really mean “me”.  Because Cheryl had extenuating circumstances - namely 36 hours of nausaea and vomiting.  Then again, covering all the parental bases for her while she’s been sick may explain my exhaustion.

I can’t really call it exhaustion though.  Actually I feel relatively well rested.  I’ve been making a point of getting 9 hours a night on Friday and Saturday nights, which has been wonderful to get me energized for the week.  For some reason weeknights I rarely manage more than 7 hours which does catch up.

But man, was the weekend busy!  Saturday I was cleaning all morning, then afternoon spent trying to get a start on my paper (again) but sidetracked with a long phone call with Mom.  Saturday night was the annual hockey pool draft, which was a good time.

Sunday it was get the kids ready for church, rush over to the church offices for some tables and chairs for the membership class I kicked off that morning, panic about whether or not the booklets had been printed out, then rush over to the church, check in the kids, set up my table, teach the class, tear it down, attend the 10am service, meet a brand new Awana leader (thank you, God!), take the kids grocery shopping (you try shopping Safeway without a cart, with a 7, 5 and 4 year old in tow!), pack the groceries away, prepare a spaghetti sauce (my finest in years), then sit down and try to churn out the October newsletter for Awana (which I failed).

Pant pant.

THEN…

I had to pack the van full of Awana gear, talk my wife into driving the kids to club (even though she could barely sit up), take off to pick up one of our leaders, get to the church, walk the new leader through a little handbooky thing we have prepared to help onboard new leaders, introduce her to the team, and then all the ordinary duties of clubs, complicated by a number of concerned parents that their child should be moved up a level because of their maturity/peer group.

Then of course packing up ASAP, rounding up my kids, and getting home before a truly obscene hour.

Looking back on the weekend now, I am impressed with all that I did do, and can’t be that displeased that there were several things that didn’t get done.  Still, things aren’t slowing down.  While there is no Awana this weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving), I need to prepare a message for the large group time next weekend, and Phil has asked me to prepare a sermon on Daniel and the Lion’s Den for the 26th.

So much for my plan to finish a draft of my grad essay this month.

Well, maybe I can do it.

I’m going to try.