I am having some frustrations with these weekly posts. I have been trying to post little blurbs daily (that works better some weeks than others), but if I am not careful about the posting time, the blog posts to the day I started it rather than the day I actually posted it. This causes the post to get buried at the back of my feed so no one sees it. Apparently that is what happened last week.

Sadness!

Well we won’t have that problem this week as this has been one of those weeks when I failed to post everyday. So today is the day I do all the catching up of what each day held for life at the Vicarage.

April 9th- Day off and housework day! I got laundry done, folded and some more hung up. HJave I mentioned that we don’t have a dryer at The Vicarage? I got rooms swept and stairs swept and some yard work done. Then the evening was given to sermon practice because Saturday is going to be busy!

April 10th– The last few Saturdays I have been trying to set aside for quiet contemplation and sermon practice. I like to preach through my sermons at least three times before I deliver them. It’s not always possible but I try.

This Saturday however I had to meet with a group of ladies who make shawls for people going through life trials. They are preparing a large quantity of shawls to give to a cancer ward and so I went by to pray with them and over this batch of shawls going out. Then I went grocery shopping.

It’s funny how my life ebbs and flows between the spiritual and the mundane without missing a beat. I can be praying and preaching one minute and the next I am figuring out what kind of butter to buy. Life is weird like that.

After I finished with the groceries I had coffee with one of my students who is now a minister in CT.

April 11th– I was elected lead pastor of Cornerstone Church today. It is kind of surreal. This is the church where I became a Christian. It is the church I have served for the large majority of my time as a pastor. Even a year ago I did not think I would ever be taking this step, but here I am!

April 12th– Today was writing day. I also had a committal service at the cemetery, a piano lesson a Five Star Man. Around all of that I managed to get my sermon written, my prayer meeting and staff meeting organized, my goal schedule for the week done, some blogging and some work done in my next book.

I haven’t done an update on Pork Chops With the Sentinels Of Azatan in a while because I am in waiting mode. My editor (who is another of my students) just had a baby and so has had to extend our deadline for the completed edits.

April 13th– Today was staff meeting day. I have had the lead pastor’s office converted into a meeting room for staff, pastoral meeting and Bible studies. I already have a beautiful office which was redone just over a year ago and the way we are working now I am not in deep need of an office at the church for everyday use. I work from home at least two days a week and I am on the road a lot more than I was before. So using the big office for me seems a poor stewardship indeed. If it weren;t for the fact that I do music lessons and some of my worship rehersals from my current office I could probably switch offices with my daughter and move to her little cubby hole.

April 14th– Today was our Wednesday night Prayer meeting. I love these meetings even if they are currently on line. I look forward to the day we can gather together again. It won’t be long we just have to create the team which will help us carry out the protocols, to keep our people safe as we gather.

https://fb.watch/4Vrw3LAxtD/

April 15th– Today was meeting and visitation day. It started with a voice lesson.

I don’t teach many students at a time because of time constraints but over the last several years I have contiually taught one or two the craft.

After that Amanda and I had a meeting about what ” Doing Life Together” means for the next generation ministries of our church. “Doing Life Together” is the new model of ministry we are pursuing for our church life.

After meeting with Amanda I took one of our elders to a Drs. appointment and then finished the day in our new meeting room with our church treasurer preparing for our board meeting and our board staff meeting. We spoke about the launch of Five Star Man as our men’s “doinbg Life Together” model and then we spoke about how to build deeper relationship between the board and staff. I really love strategizing!

Adapting to my new schedule as acting lead pastor of Cornerstone has turned out to be quite a learning curve.

My writing has suffered even though I now have a day dedicated to it. This is primarily because I now have A LOT of new writing projects on my plate every week. You may have noticed I am doing a daily devotional video based on my Sunday morning services. This is a first step in helping the church begin to fulfill its vision of doing life together. In the course of pandemic our on-line presence has become more important than we ever dreamed it would and reaching out digitally on a regular basis is absolutely essential.

Anyway these new pieces of life at The Vicarage have required a bit of adaptation, but I am slowly getting there. Here is how it has all gone down over these last two weeks.

March 19-Mom is improving everyday. Friday’s are becoming the day when I attend to the majority of the housework I can’t get to during the week. Things like: cleaning my office, sweeping the stairs and vacuuming the carpets. It is also the day I try to get to extra writing, but today…..too busy with other things.

March 20th– I like to try to practice my sermon a couple of times on Saturdays. This morning I was up at 4 to pray and practice. I got a call for a funeral this morning from the funeral home and called the family this afternoon before I practiced my sermon for a second time.

March 21st– Here is the Sunday sermon Entering the Promise Pt. 4-

https://fb.watch/4D9bLgRaeZ/

March 22nd- Writing day! I am strating to build a new routine: I start by creating my schedule for the week; Then I do my morning video for Facebook which becomes my morning blog; I put together my staff meeting and then create Wednesday night’s Bible study (soon it will be Wednesday night’s prayer focus); The I write sermons. I am in the process of putting together the next 6 sermons in my series. I have the first two sermons pretty well brain written, but the final four, entitled Engaging the Promise, are eluding me.

I find that when I get writer’s block my first step to a remedy for writer’s block is to get my head into Scripture and then into waiting prayer. Then I need to just write.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU GET WRITER’S BLOCK?

I got my sermon for Palm Sunday done and my sermon for Easter blocked out.

March 23rd- I didn’t pray enough today….Things get out of balance when this happens.

March 24th– Over the course of the last three years many people have left our church. One of the things that often happens when a church goes through pastoral transition is some of those people come back. I have set a goal for myself to personally meet with every person who comes back. I met with the first of those parishioners today. It was a very good meeting, after which I had my assistant draft a letter to the parishioners pastor for further conversation.

Here is our Bible Study from the Wall for tonight. It is the final segment of our series on the seven letters to the churches from Revelation.

https://fb.watch/4DaU3U_Kkx/

March 25th-I ministered a funeral tonight. I haven’t had a lot of funerals this year, which is really strange. Before pandemic it seemed like I was “the pastor of death”. I did a lot of funerals! But this year…not so much.

March 26th– Today mom had a Dr’s. Appointment. It was both a follow up from her fall and an annual physical. Mom usually stresses out a lot before these appointments, but this time around she was much more relaxed about the whole affair. I am wondering if it was because we used a wheel chair and so she didn’t feel like she had to walk into the building.

As I have considered mom’s health I am realizing that this fall was probably a long time in the coming. There were little signs all along the way that didn’t look much like signs at the time, but in hind sight explain so much about where we are now in her physical condition.

March 27th– One of the things I haven’t spoken much about is worship leading. Even as I assume the role of lead pastor I am still leading the worship teams. I am singing and playing less and less, but I am still overseeing the worship schedules and practices.

I imagine I will be doing this for a while, and the connectedness between the pulpit and the music is something I want to maintain even as God reveals His next leader for the worship ministry.

March 28th– Here is out service from Palm Sunday.

https://fb.watch/4DbUlL7r8K/

The Franklins were supposed to come out this weekend but the girls were sick…Oh well next week.

March 29th– Another writing day! I finished my sermon for Easte,r although I might need to edit. It seems a little long.

March 30th– Today was staff meeting and then a trip out to Cheshire Medical Center to take one of our elders to a cardiology appointment.

March 31st– Today was the scheduled congregational Q&A. The meeting where church people were allowed to ask the prospective pastor anything they wanted to know. It was an hour of great conversation. The final vote is on April 11th after service.

April 1st-I was doing the dishes this morning and God downloaded the next four services for the month of April through the first of May into my heart. I love it when He does that.

Well this is has gone on twice as long as usual….sooooooo.

Bye for now!