Yesterday was a good day and one with a wide variety of experiences. As for my musings …
-I preached at both churches, ate a quick lunch, took a brief nap and then my wife and I went to a high school graduation open house and then to an out of town funeral visitation. It was a full day.
-In my 10:30 church we honored the memory of 3 of our members who recently passed away. We had members of the families come forward and a person from each family shared something about the one who passed. Then we gave them certificates recognizing that they are now a part of the Memorial Roll of our church. It was a special time of remembering and honoring 3 special people.
-We had a visitor in my 9:00 church. It is someone who lives in town and had received a personal invitation from someone in the church. People rarely attend for the first time from an advertisement, they attend because of a personal invitation.
-Tonight, will be the first of our volunteer gatherings for those who desire to serve in our Vacation Bible School that will begin in 6 weeks at my 10:30 church. VBS is kind of a big deal around here and we have many people who invest many, many hours to prepare for it.
-Yesterday’s worship services went well, but we had some technical glitches are both churches.
-There was a very good spirit during our time of singing and prayer in my 10:30 church.
-Attendance was a little down at both churches. The good news, there were visitors at both churches.
-My Dad celebrated his 89th birthday on Friday.
-Continued our series on relationships yesterday. It was a message with a lot of practical applications, in fact I had 2 people reference something from the sermon yesterday afternoon and evening.
-Thinking of a friend of mine, who happens to be a pastor in our community, who is retiring soon and will be moving a couple of states away. I am really going to miss him and his infectious laugh and our times of praying together.
-Looking at pictures of kids who are graduating High School and College from previous places we pastored is making me feel old. When you move away you tend to think of everyone as staying the same age as when you left. Obviously, they don’t, but it is still a bit of a shock to the system to see pictures of some of them graduating.
-Very burdened for the message I will be sharing this Sunday.
-I need to stop talking about getting in better shape and losing some weight and start doing something about it. Ouch! Part of my message yesterday on building relationships was on the importance of spending time together. I said, “Planning on spending time with someone does not equal spending time with them.” I need to apply the same truth to shaping up physically.

-Been working on some small group, or seminar type, teaching recently. Laying out some of the fall teaching and preaching schedule.
-I am praying for several people who are awaiting results from recent medical tests. All of them are the kind of tests that waiting for the results makes you nervous.
Here’s hoping you get some great news this week and that you will reach out and encourage someone else.

Dennis