Museum Day

http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/about.html

Just so you know. Free admission across the USA.

Book list

As you can see the list of books that I want to read is growing. One part of being a pastor is growing so that there is reserve to share. It is important:

to stretch myself through experiences.

to enrich myself through reading quality material.

to soak myself in hearing good sermons from godly preachers.

to humble myself in God's presence daily.

I am sure there are many more important things. These are the things that are currently pulling on me. May God pull you to himself and fill you.

Hard sermon

This past Sunday's sermon preparation was probably the hardest one I've had yet. The sermon just wouldn't come together. I ended up with about twice the material than I needed. I let it sit for a day, and then after the Husker's tough last minute loss, I returned to it.

I hacked the sermon to pieces, and rearranged different sections and went to bed still feeling very unsure of it. As I slept the spirit continued to work. I woke up in the morning with the new end of the sermon spinning in my head.

Even 5 minutes prior to the sermon I still had misgivings about the sermon. Someone must have been praying. I missed a lot of things that I had prepared and added a couple things that came to me in the moment, and the sermon went okay. Praise God! There were a lot of heartfelt comments and learnings that people shared with me after the service.

The Spirit of God is still at work in the congregation... and in me. :)

To God be the glory, Amen.

Pictures from Nebraska

Enjoy some pictures from Nebraska. You should be able to see them even if you aren't a facebook member.

Click and enjoy

Labor Day

People in Ohio are lazy:) Just kidding! No really, I am kidding!!!!! I just wanted to catch your attention. Now that I've got it. Are you enjoying your day off to celebrate labor day?

I haven't found anybody here in Shickley, Nebraska that is actually taking the day off. Everybody is laboring to celebrate Labor Day. The people that I talked to last night are doing construction (Brett and Swartzendruber construction), removing irrigation pipe from the field (Will and Don, and maybe Derek and Kristi), Suzanne is mowing the lawn, and there is this pastor who is working in his office.

The girls are off today from school. I plan to hang out with the family this afternoon.

We took the girls and some friends to the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln on Saturday. It was a good time of seeing animals, watching people, eating lots of really tasty (and expensive) food, and being with friends. The only things that were missing was a Ventrac booth and my Dad's Amsoil booth where we get a yearly picture with he and the girls. We all got pretty tired by the end of the day.

Oops

I must have gotten a little busy there. It has been nearly 3 weeks since I posted here. I have a pastor friend who sat around the first couple weeks wondering what he was supposed to do:) Maybe a slight exaggeration. That has not been the case for me. I have found plenty to do. Actually to the point that I have to discipline myself to not follow thoughts that come up. Instead, I have to write them down so that I can complete what I am working on. One morning, I realized that I had over a dozen things that I had written down while trying to prepare an email to worship planners about where my Sermon was headed.

Anyway, I am getting into the groove of things, enjoying the work, and looking forward to becoming more efficient. I want to get out of my office more.