Making a Debut

Over the summer our minister has been away, first on study leave and then on a well-deserved holiday. We have therefore had an eight week period when he has been away (strictly speaking, we've had seven, with one more to go). During that time the preaching duties have been shared: we've had a couple of guests, a couple of our retired ministers have taken a turn, and a couple of our elders have stood in. On Sunday, therefore, I made my debut preaching in the church.

However, as always when I'm presenting something, the story starts quite some time before the event itself - there is always considerable preparation to be done. In this instance, this started with the main sermon itself, and in particular the three points I wanted to cover. (Because, of course, three shall be the number of the points, and the number of the points shall be three. Four shall not be the number of the points, nor indeed shall there be two points, excepting that you proceed immediately to the third. Five is right out.)

While I was thrashing out the sermon, I also picked the hymns. This proved to be pretty easy: one of the great benefits of running the service is that you get to choose all your favourites. So I went for a number of the classics, most of which are really well known; one of which that congregation don't sing terribly often. (Also one that happened to come up three weeks before, but nobody seemed to mind very much.)

That done, there was a children's talk to work out, and then some prayers to compose. Those proved to be the hardest part of the whole, especially the Prayer of Intercession, which I wrote well in advance and so had to modify for events closer to the time.

Fundamentally, the work was all done a couple of weeks in advance - not because I was super-prepared, but because I was going away the week before and so wanted to make sure everything was in place.

Then came the day itself. Everything was prepared, everything was well rehearsed, and so the time had come. On went the traditional black suit (jeans and t-shirt not being quite the thing - I'm the youngest of the elders, but that would be pushing it a bit!), up to the church, a check on the presentation and the audio system, and then the waiting...

I do hate the waiting.

And then, come the appointed moment, on with the show!

It all went pretty well, I thought. At least, I didn't get struck down for saying something blasphemous, though that may be a low bar to clear. But everyone seemed quite positive as they left, I don't think anyone actually fell asleep, and so it's all good.

I guess I'll only really find out when the minister is next away - will I be asked back, or was I successful enough to not get asked back?

Anyway, that was my weekend.