Do you have the rubber monkey?

So, I obviously have taken a little blogging hiatus...sorry about that, life happens, I guess.
It was a busy week. I preached a week ago and then again this past Wednesday, that made the first three days of this week really interesting. My sermon from a week ago went pretty well; I'm at a decent point, I would say, in my development in the office of preaching. I'm at the point where I have most of my sermon memorized. I must be honest, I was against....well, two things...memorized/manuscripted sermons and prewritten prayers. I was against both of those because I felt that the Holy Spirit wouldn't work through those. Let me first start with prewritten prayers, that's easier to talk about. I felt that, before I entered the Seminary, that prayers needed to be on the spot. And if you are like me, you tend to jumble your words a little bit, unless you have an idea of what you are going to say before hand. I have found that in prewritten prayers that they allow me to focus on what is important, that these prayers are being offered up to God, instead of the words that I'm trying to figure out how to "correctly" say- which I really attempted to do in college, and when we do "on the spot" prayer requests at my church here. In thinking about that, which is better, focusing on what is needed to be said (on the spot) or the prayers themselves that are being put forth to God (prewritten)? I'd definately say the latter. But, I do not/will not deny the importance of doing on the spot prayers. One thing that I like about a traditional Lutheran service, is all the prayers that are said throughout the service...there are a lot! Seriously, if you take away the hymnals, it'd almost be like a quasi-pentecostal service...quasi. And obviously, if you've read this, or know me, you'd know that I'm a fan of contemporary music, but I think that there are some traditional things that too many churches overlook in their non-traditional service.
Going back to the original topic of sermons/prayers, for a long time I thought that memorizing a sermon was bunk because it doesn't allow the Holy Spirit to work in/through the sermon...I was wrong. I find that I **have to** rely on the working of the Holy Spirit to keep me on target, other wise no one would get anything out of my sermons! Sure, I do memorize them and I definately do not read from my manuscript (I've only done that twice and I hated both times in doing that!), but I find that in the moment of the service another idea, more-often-than-not it is a better illistration than what I had previously conceived. Also, having a manuscript allows me to see where my train of thought will lead. One thing that I'm looking forward to, in going back to St. Louis for my final year, is getting more sermon helps. And I know that my preaching will only develop even more as I grow as being a pastor, which is like only a year and a half away! Time certainly does fly by!
So, my sermon for a week ago went pretty good...that's what everyone told me. But my sermon this past Wednesday...chaos! I was all over the place! It wasn't my worst here in Palm Coast, but it certainly wasn't my best. And I did jump ahead of myself in my sermon, so I verbally said that I jumped ahead and backed up. And, going back to the whole Holy Spirit leading me in my sermons, I was talking about Mary's visit by the angel Gabriel. And in my manuscript I said that "he scared her," well, in my sermon I said "he scared the beegeebees out of her!" The reaction of the congregation was hilarious! The choir was bent over laughing, I scared my supervisor...to what extent, not too sure of, which is fine. (Perhaps it was my sudden change in volume.) But, I almost started to laugh...I held back or that would have been it! One thing that many of the members commented on after that service is they enjoyed the fact that I was real with them, in saying that I went too far in advance during my preaching and that I'm not exactly fully-"reformed" (reformed meaning in pose), because it showed them that I am a real person. That was probably the best criticism that I've had, because it was so genuine. I honestly do not like to hear that I preached a good sermon every single time I preach...I'd rather hear how God has changed their lives through those words that He enables me to speak. But, when I hear that I preached a good sermon, out of the blue, aka from someone that normally doesn't say that to me, it means something.
Not to revel that I'm in Florida, but I went to the beach yesterday...not for a long time, but it was nice...the water is still warm too! I'll post a picture on here later this week of my time at the beach. I also played my first game of Halo last night too...that was a good learning experience and I started getting used to it by the time I left a buddy of mine's house.
Oh, we had our first evangelism training seminar yesterday...it went pretty good! I hope that those who came (about 7% of the congregation came, 20 people or so) actually put into practice what we taught. I really enjoy teaching...not just adults, but all ages. I find joy in helping those in the faith discover new and life-changing ideas that we have in the Bible! Today, I helped in the first-third grade class, which was pretty fun. I taught them that Xmas is okay to use. Many people do not know that an X, "Chi" in Greek, was used as shorthand to write Christ. So, by saying Xmas, you are not taking Christ out of Christmas, but just using a symbol to express Christ. Like what we see in churches with the "IHS," which some think means "In His Service," which isn't true. Again it is shorthand in Latin to express Jesus and it isn't "IHS" but "IES." It is just that an "e" looks like an "h" in Latin and Greek. Interesting tidbit, huh?
Oh, so, in Sunday School, there are twins in the class, Hayden and Evan...Evan says to Hayden, "Hayden, do you have the rubber monkey?" That was totally out of the blue...it was soooo funny! Katie and I couldn't help but laugh!
This evening in my small group, we started a new study, "Understanding a woman's heart." It's a part of the "Being God's man..." series, we finished another book in that study, "Standing firm under pressure," last week. I'm actually looking forward to this study, more for the insight that I'll gain from the other men in the group. Since I am not married, and by no means remotely close, it gives me an opportunity to learn from these men. We have a group of 7 guys, 4 are married, 1 is dating, another is a divorcee, and then myself. In seriousness of relationships, I'm probably on the lacking side of that...I've had one and even that one wasn't über-serious, aka talking about being married. I, obviously, have no reservations talking about that. The reason behind that is that I'm not exactly one that will just date for the hell of it, I at least want to have some purpose in the relationship, that does not equate to talking about getting married early in the relationship, but I wouldn't date someone that I didn't think it'd go some place. That is probably the big paradox in my life.

Best Idea today: Well, from yesterday, going to the beach...it was so awesome there yesterday.
Worst Idea today: I got like no sleep last night...not good, it affected my services today.