“8 Days with the Preacher” : Day 1, Sunday February 19

[NOTE: From Sunday, February 19 through Sunday, February 26, I am going to chronicle what I do during a “normal” week. I hope, by doing so, that you will gain insight into the work of a preacher, and that you will also get a glimpse “behind the curtain” into my personality.]

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What started off to be a not-so-great Sunday turned out great. We knew the weather could be nasty today, but I didn’t count on waking up trying to ward off a sinus problem. When you are going to be speaking in public for over an hour during the course of a day, having gunk isn’t fun! But we worked through it and had a great day!

I got up at 6AM and got most of the way ready. Then I went downstairs, answered a couple of emails, read a couple of blogs, and started working on breakfast. Our family ate breakfast together (as we do every morning), and then we finished getting ready for worship and headed to Lebanon Road.

A mix of heavy rain and some snow (yes, snow!!!) kept a few of our folks away, but we still had a great Sunday. I preached the last in a 3-part lesson on “The Story of the Bible” (you can listen to or download the lesson here) to a crowd of 316. That number included some great friends from Dexter, Missouri. It was great to see them, and I look forward to heading there late next week to teach class at their youth rally.

After worship, I taught a class on Jude, verses 14-16. My class is using Aubrey Johnson’s excellent book Spiritual Patriots to work through Jude, and I am greatly motivated by this study. I love this class, because each member of the class truly loves the Bible, and we enjoy studying together. We have a lot of serious study, but we also laugh a lot.

After Bible classes, we headed home. Leah had a wonderful meal ready for us, but we had to eat quickly. Leah is one of the teachers at Lebanon Road who is taking a weekly Bible school lesson to Blake Rader’s house, and today was her “turn.” We had all thought about going, but Blake’s immune system is very susceptible right now, so our kids didn’t need to go. Also, since I was recovering from a sinus infection, we didn’t want me to go, in case it had really been something else. So, the kids laid down for some rest, and I enjoyed some reading time.

This is a Sunday when I am not preaching on Sunday night, so I try to rest a little more on these days, but still do some reading. (I’ll say more about what I am reading later in the week.) Also during this time, I uploaded our Sunday morning sermon to our podcast feed, listened to a couple of podcasts, and played a few rounds on Words with Friends.

Around 2:00, I looked over some notes for a lesson. Once each month, Lebanon Road leads the Sunday worship service at Heartland assisted

living, and I always try to attend. Today, however, was my turn to speak, so I took a few minutes to look over some notes for that lesson, then our family all headed out to worship with those fine folks at 4PM, and enjoy the fellowship we get from being around them.

Following the services at Heartland, we had one of our traditional family outings, as we stopped at a local Subway for some cookies. It was great to be joined this time by one of our elders and his wife. We enjoyed a few minutes of shooting the breeze, then headed back to the Lebanon Road building for evening worship.

I mentioned that today was a time when I was only preaching once. The reason is that we were blesse

d to host the Lipscomb Campus School Concert Chorus. Some of the young men from that group led the evening worship (including one of our own young men, who led singing) for a crowd of 472, then, following worship, we enjoyed hearing this group sing. They did a great job and brought a lot of encouragement to us.

After that, we had a fellowship meal for the group, their families, and our church family. The fellowship was fun, and we stayed a little later to help take down some of the tables and chairs. Now we are home, the kids are getting ready for bed, and I will be doing a little reading  before turning in for the night.

It was a great day, and I look forward to a productive week ahead.

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Please note that Monday’s post will probably go live later in the day, too. My plan is to post it around 9PM. I hope you enjoy it!