Molly Morton August Update

Dear Prayer Partners,

Last weekend, I preached my first sermon in the Church of the Nazarene here in Greystones and it went really well. I looked back at my last update and remembered how nervous and scared I was to preach and then I realized that I had none of those emotions last Sunday. It was none of my own doing, God worked through me. Also, I had prepared for close to six weeks to preach for a little less than twenty minutes, so there was that too. But mostly divinely given calm and confidence.

As I prepared and gave my sermon last week, I learned a few things that I wanted to share with you. First of all, you need to repeat words and phrases a great deal more in preaching than in writing. It was some of the first notes I got when I started asking for feedback on my manuscript. In writing, repeating yourself is frowned upon and seen as redundant. But in preaching, repeating is encouraged and required in order for your audience to literally get the point. It made me think that good and truthful information and feedback bears repeating, no matter how many times it’s already been said.

Secondly, I talk really fast when I get up on a stage and am given a microphone. Mostly this happens because I stop breathing. In my sermon manuscript, I literally wrote notes to myself reminding me to breath. I wrote notes in my manuscript reminding myself to look up at my audience, at my church family. If I hadn’t looked up, I would have missed a new friend proudly watching me with tears rolling down her cheeks. Most of the time in my life, there is a moment where I need to look up and take a deep breath.

Lastly, I realized that I might not ever know how this sermon spoke to people in that room last Sunday. I might not ever know what seeds were planted that morning. But God does and that’s okay.

If you’d like to watch my sermon, there is a link in this email. Please enjoy it.

Preaching at Church of the Nazarene

What Am I Reading, Listening, and Watching?

I’m Reading…

• Preaching in Pictures: Using Images for Sermon that Connect- Peter Jonker
  This was the most helpful book I read during my sermon prep. It gave me a structure for my manuscript and helped me find where to put the “run and jump” story.

I’m Watching…

• One of my favorite podcasts deep dived the pilot of ER, which made me want to re-watch it. It still holds up, such a good show.

I’m Listening To:

• Dermot Kennedy: Sonder

 

Pray with Me

Praises:

• The Naz held our Cookery and Craft camp last week and it was a huge success. We had a packed hall each and every day. Some of those families came to church on Sunday. It was a wonderful picture of the kingdom working together to hold presence and show love to our community.
• From what I’ve heard so far, preaching went really well on Sunday. Thank you to all of you that were praying.
• We partnered with the local Youth Life group to offer a Youth Drop In on Friday evenings in August to fill the gap between summer camps and the beginning of fall programming. It is going well and well attended.

Requests:

• Please pray for how we might move forward with the momentum we have from the Youth Drop In. We have a handful of teenagers and young adults at the Naz that we would like to be serving better.
• My oldest nephew, Dominic leaves for college at Grand Canyon University next week. Please pray for my brother, Mark and his family as they experience this huge milestone and also miss him very much. Please pray for me as I observe and experience this milestone from afar.
• The Naz will be hosting a team from the States at the beginning of October. Please pray for the logistics, details and communication that need to fall into place.