Wow, what a great day we enjoyed yesterday. It was the first Sunday where I preached at both churches. I not only survived, but both services went very well. Here goes my first attempt at sharing my musings from 2 places …

-I only had to go back home one time to get something I forgot to take to the first church service. Not bad for the first time. This is definitely going to force me to get more organized for Sunday mornings.

-There was a lot of nervousness about the service for the church that moved worship up to 9:00 to allow me to preach at both churches. We were concerned that several people would not come, but we had very good attendance and a good mix of ages.

-The big struggle yesterday was with my voice. A cold hit me starting on Thursday and has gotten worse each day. When I woke up Sunday morning it felt like it had settled in my throat. I had trouble speaking more than 2 sentences without coughing when I attempted to run through my sermon before the first service. I was sucking on 1 or 2 cough drops at a time all morning. Between drinking lots of water, cough drops and many people praying I was able to get through both services. I even got some unexpected help from an awesome elementary boy who brought me a cough drop while I was struggling to preach in my first service.

-A big fear in most new situations is that you don’t know what you don’t know until you get started. I am glad to have the first service behind me and as far as I can tell I did not mess things up too much.

-I felt rushed in coming back for my second service and that has as much to do with not knowing how the timing was going to work as anything. Fortunately one of my prayer warrior retired pastors was still able to pray over me before the service. That always helps.

-Attendance was good at both places.

-We had some more new people attend and some others who returned for the second or third time. I love seeing that people are inviting people and taking serious the call to reach out in the community.

-My wife is a superstar. She led worship at both places and with different styles in each. Also, one of our dedicated ladies committed to helping at both places for a while. I am humbled by her servant’s heart.

-I am going to have to really focus during announcement times, since not all announcements are the same in the two churches. Better yet, maybe I don’t need to do announcements.

-I am excited that this coming Sunday we will be giving away our entire offering. Everything that comes in is going out to other ministries. Half of it will go to 2 local ministries, a pregnancy resource center and a ministry to help people overcome addictions and half will go to 2 international ministries, our denomination’s ministry against human trafficking and a feeding and education ministry in Kenya.

-I began a new sermon series entitled “I will … declarations for following Christ”. Yesterday was from Exodus 3 and 4. The declaration was “I will answer God’s call”. We looked at Moses and his call. The steps involved and how we need to answer when God calls.

-I missed being able to visit with people during the breakfast time at the church where I was already pastoring. In fact this schedule has me missing the Sunday School/Small Group time in both churches. That makes the small group times throughout the week even more important to me.

-I have a lot of evaluating to do this week so I better get going.

Here’s hoping you are saying yes to God’s call and that you are seeking opportunities to encourage someone else this week.

Dennis