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<\/a>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.<\/p>\nAs 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\u2019s already been said.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like to watch my sermon, there is a link in this email. Please enjoy it.<\/p>\n