Well, I did it -- I preached my very first sermon since my first year in seminary. Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it. God certainly showed his goodness to me through the whole process; in fact, he used the Psalm I studied and the message I prepared to encourage me!
When I preached in class, I felt incredibly peaceful and confident - and that confidence really didn't come from my preparation (since I hadn't even really practiced the sermon aloud and actually had no idea how many minutes it would turn out to be...). I really think I sensed the peace of the Spirit. That was cool.
Here's another cool thing: I had been kind of intimidated to preach in front of all the guys in my class (since seminarians are notorious for nit-picking at sermons), but after my sermon several of the guys told me it was just what they needed to hear that morning. The main theme of my sermon was joy in the midst of lament, and one guy in particular told me that he had come to class praying that God would show him how to be joyful. Now THAT's awesome.
Whew! I'm almost done with all the work for my MDiv degree... kinda crazy...
that's a pretty wonderful feedback, that the guys talked about the content of the sermon touching their hearts rather than nit-picking! I'm sure eventually you would like some other feedback (?) but that was a nice way for God to use and touch YOU.
ReplyDeleteYah! You did it! Nothing a smidge of grace can't handle.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! It can be quite difficult to preach in such synthetic arenas with well-educated critics, but I wish we had such opportunities in the local church to help keep the teaching pastors' iron sharpened.
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