The Heart of a Pastor

It's official...I've moved

I am officially moving this blog to WordPress.  I guess my decision came a little faster than I thought.  My new address is:  www.heartofapastor.wordpress.com.  Please make the appropriate changes to your bookmarks and links.  This blog will stay remain active until people have a chance to get used to the new address, but this will be my last post here.

All my posts from Typepad (with comments) have been moved to my WordPress blog so the only thing that is changing is the address and the look of my blog. 

After 2 plus years on Typepad this will be post number 351 with 804 comments submitted.  It has been a fun run here on Typepad but I look forward to continuing my blogging ministry in a new location.  Thanks again for a great 2 plus years and I look forward to many more with you in my new location.

Take care and God bless.

-edh-

Working on a NEW site

I have returned from the SW MN Synod Assembly and currently am getting caught up.  I wrote a post today detailing some stuff that took place this past weekend, but Typepad up and lost my post (this time it was not my fault).  So because of this and other frustrations I am having with Typepad, I am currently working on a new site over at WordPress at:  www.heartofapastor.wordpress.com   I invite you to stop by and give me some feedback.  I have exported ALL my blog posts (and comments) from Typepad to Wordpress.  Right now I am working on transferring my blogroll and working on the design.  I have not "officially" moved yet, but I will be typing some posts over there to get a feel of WordPress and then make a decision.  For those of you on WordPress, is there any advice you can give me?
I do plan to write about some interesting things that took place at our assembly pertaining to some strange resolutions that were passed.  To give you a little teaser...there were two resolutions passed legislating prayer within our congregations.  I found that frustrating.  More on that over at my Wordpress site.

In the mean time I look forward to seeing you over at my "new" place.  Call it a "lake cabin" that I may just move to.  In any case, have a great day and I will catch you later.

-edh-

Thursday coffee shop ponderings on Friday

I thought maybe I would head to my favorite coffee shop yesterday (Thursday), but I never made it.  Since I was not writing a sermon this week, everything got thrown off.  I did make it today, though, but I am sitting at home right now enjoying my coffee.  And get this...I while ago I wrote a tongue-in-check post about my Coffee Choices total being $6.66.  Well...today is Friday the 13th and my Coffee Choices total was $6.66...and it is always a different combination of stuff.   Weird.

Anyway...today I head to Gustavus Adolphus College (GAC) for the SW MN Synod Assembly.  Things start at 3:30pm and I should be home sometime Sunday afternoon.  A good friend of mine over at the "other" Lutheran church down the block is leading worship for me on Sunday.  Through my attendance tracking program I have on my computer I have noticed that when I am gone average worship attendance goes down by about 13 people.  So last week I didn't tell the congregation I was going to be gone.  Of course my council and deacons know I am going to be gone, but it is not widely known.  I am curious what the worship attendance will be.  I'll let you know on Monday how my "experiment" goes.

But before I take my leave of you to do my run and pack for the weekend, I want to share with you something that I have been reading.  The other day I started reading The Living Word: A Theological Study of Preaching and the Church by Gustaf Wingren.  I read this book in my second year preaching class in seminary and decided to tackle it again.  So far I have not been disappointed.  Here's a quote from the first chapter that caught my attention and served as an excellent reminder of what we, as preachers, are called to do:

"The Lutheran assertion that we have just now mentioned, that preaching, in so far as it is Biblical preaching, is God's own speech to people, is very difficult to maintain in practice.  Instead it is very easy to slip into the idea that preaching is only speech about God.  Such a slip, once made, gradually alters the picture of God, so that he becomes the far-off deistic God who is remote from the preached word and is only spoken about as we speak about someone who is absent...God is creative and near simply by speaking his Word." (pg. 19 & 20)

It makes me wonder how many times I have "slipped".  But to get the full flavor of what Wingren is talking about you really need to dive into this book yourself.

With that, I take my leave of you.  I am not sure if I will have time and/or access to stop back during the weekend.  In case I don't...I hope and pray you have a blessed weekend (one without rain).  Take care and God bless.

-edh-

The sermon event (with a Prelude and Postlude)

PRELUDE
Have you ever written something; thought it was the best thing since sliced bread and then lost it in the blink of an eye?  Well...that happened to me late this morning.  I was working on this particular post and thought I had something pretty good.  I went to hit save and the next thing I knew I was being transported back the the Typepad home screen faster than a Star Trek beam-out.  And in what seemed like a freak transporter accident, the "molecules" of my brilliantly written post were scattered throughout the vastness of cyberspace.  But before anyone starts getting theological on me and say that this was God's way of saying that I was not suppose to write that post...I had already considered that and discarded that reasoning.  I just haven't figured out what I am chalking this unfortunate incident up to yet.  But I got a feeling it will come back to some message from God.

Now on to something I hope you really like...
The real reason I wanted to offer my not-so-called writing talents was to say something about the sermon event as I see it.

Back in 2006 I started posting my sermons on a separate blog over at Blogger.com.  I thought for some reason that people might enjoy reading these and even enter into a discussion about them.  But a few weeks ago I discontinued this practice.  I did have a few people comment on these sermons, but it was not for the lack of comments that I quit posting them.  I came to the conclusion that I was not being authentic in those sermons.  People were not really getting the sermon that was preached.

For me...the sermon event is more than a bunch of words/notes on a piece of paper.  The sermon event involves (very intimately) the one preaching the sermon; something that is very difficult to see, feel and experience though a bunch of words.  I do not doubt that people get something out of written sermons read after the sermon event.  I have read other people's sermons and have learned a lot about my relationship with Christ.  I have read a number of Luther's sermons and have found them very useful.  But I believe that actually being there; to hear and experience the sermon would produce something different than some printed words ("Faith comes by hearing").

Don't get me wrong...I am not claiming to be some brilliant sermon deliverer.  I am not claiming that people's lives are transformed each and every week because of words that I have written.  But what I am claiming is that in each sermon is a piece of me.  People get to see my faith being worn on my sleeve.  There are times when the written word on my piece of paper is not what is spoken.  There have been times when I felt I did not explain a point well enough so I added more words.  There have been times when the Holy Spirit captured me and totally lead me away from my written words.  More times than not, the words I posted on-line where not the exact same words I preached.

And don't get me wrong in this respect...I am not criticizing those who post sermons on-line.  Like I said, I have read many sermons that I thoroughly enjoyed.  But for me...the sermon event is the main thing.  I don't want Salem members to think they can get the same thing out of the sermon by reading it as opposed to experiencing it.  I want people there...in worship...to experience the power of the Holy Spirit through the SPOKEN word.  Once again..."Faith comes by hearing".  But if people call in a request a copy of one the sermons I preached...I will provide them with one (but maybe I should print the above "disclaimer" on it).

So there you have it...my faith on my sleeve through a bunch of words written on a computer screen.  Seems kind of hypocritical considering what I just wrote.  So...if you want to experience this post in a different way, stop by my office sometime and I just might read this to you.

POSTLUDE
I have determined what I am chalking up my "freak blog post transporter accident" up to.  You see...there is this pesky little button on the bottom of my page...right next the the "SAVE" button that says, "DELETE POST".  Need I say more :)

-edh-

Monday morning check-in

Sermon prep-less week

I know "prep-less" is not a word but like I am fond of telling my wife, "If it comes out of my mouth, then it is a word".  That may or may not be a good idea, but I am going to apply that logic here. 

Today begins a sermon prep-less week.  For those of you who are not solo pastors this may not seem like a big deal.  But if you are used to preparing a sermon (nearly) every single week of the year...a week off seems kind of strange.  This weekend is the SW MN Synod Assembly.  It's been called the synod's "business" meeting (I don't like that title).  Others have called this weekend a "forced day off" for pastors (that may be closer to the truth...the "forced" part not the "day off" part).  Whatever the weekend is "officially" called, it is a time for me to re-fuel a little bit.  I enjoy preparing and preaching sermons, but I still need a week off now and then to help me appreciate this craft more.  But even though I am not engaging in my "official" sermon prep routine, I still think I am still going to go to my favorite coffee house on Thursday for lunch (with my laptop) to do some writing.  I guess some habits are just too hard to break.

Prince Caspian

Yesterday the churches in Jackson hosted a day at the movies for people to come and watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.  A number of businesses donated door prizes which we gave away before and after the movie.  After the movie we also had a time for questions and answers. 

Without giving too much of the movie away I thought there was a lot of violence in the movie (epsecially for younger kids).  There was one family that walked out during the movie for that very reason.  Granted...the violence was not as bad as most movies; there was no blood and gore, but a lot of people/characters died.   The first Narina movie did not have this much violence and the books don't have the violence either.  Hollywood definitely took a lot of creative liberties with the movie.  Even though it is rumored that the C.S Lewis family approved how these stories were protrayed, I find it hard to believe C.S. Lewis himself would have approved.  These stories were written as children's stories.  And the last time I checked, "children's stories" generally don't contain that much violence.  But that aside...I still really enjoyed the movie and recommend it.  I just don't recommend it for young children.  Please preview the movie before letting children see it.  And that is all I will say about it.  I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

Training

117 days, 19 hours and 14 minutes (give or take a few minutes, hours or days...depending on when you read this) until the Medtronic Twin Cities marathon.  This past week or so my running has been a little slow.  My right hip has really been hurting me lately, but is feeling better today.  I can still run, but it takes a few miles for my hip to loosen up enough for me to get up to pace.  Maybe this is a sign that I am indeed getting old (but let's not tell my body or my wife...I still plan to run this marathon).

With that I take my leave of you.  Since this is a sermon prep-less week, I am going to take advantage of it and get some things done that I haven't done for a while.  I am also going to try to get outside this afternoon and enjoy this blue sky that I haven't seen for awhile.

So take care and have a very blessed day!

-edh-