Amanda and I have been away on holiday for the past week, hence the dearth of posts. We got back a couple of days ago, and have been straight back into it all.
Particularly today, when I feel that I have made it as a small town minister. For today I judged the local Catholic school's speech competition. 5 year olds through to 13 year olds. 'Speeches' (and I use that word loosely) ranging in topic from the evils of animal testing to why league is better than union (that kid won - he was brilliant). Mums and Dads popping in to see their kids speak, and the kids themselves urging each other on. it was beautiful - just like you imagine a small town school to be.
Now some of you may mock. Some of you may have questions about this. Some of you may question my use of time in doing this. Some of you may say 'that wasn't gospel ministry'. 'That wasn't the ministry of prayer and the word.' Some of you may question why I, a good, some would say uberconservative evangelical, was going into the Roman Catholic School at all. Wasn't this taking time away from the minister's 'core business'? Couldn't I have been spending time on sermon preparation, visiting, evangelism? Fair questions.
But at the end of the competition I was asked by the principal to give the kids a few pointers on how to speak in public. I asked her if there was anything that she particularly wanted me to get across, and she said 'not particularly, why don't you tell them that while we tell the good news about Jesus in lots of different ways, being able to speak it clearly in public is very important, and this speech competition gives them practice in that.' So I stood up and said some nice things about public speaking, and reminded these 30 or so kids, and the 8 or so parents, and the 6 or so staff about the gospel. That Jesus died for us and offers us forgiveness when we put our trust in him.
A questionable use of time? I don't think so.
Particularly today, when I feel that I have made it as a small town minister. For today I judged the local Catholic school's speech competition. 5 year olds through to 13 year olds. 'Speeches' (and I use that word loosely) ranging in topic from the evils of animal testing to why league is better than union (that kid won - he was brilliant). Mums and Dads popping in to see their kids speak, and the kids themselves urging each other on. it was beautiful - just like you imagine a small town school to be.
Now some of you may mock. Some of you may have questions about this. Some of you may question my use of time in doing this. Some of you may say 'that wasn't gospel ministry'. 'That wasn't the ministry of prayer and the word.' Some of you may question why I, a good, some would say uberconservative evangelical, was going into the Roman Catholic School at all. Wasn't this taking time away from the minister's 'core business'? Couldn't I have been spending time on sermon preparation, visiting, evangelism? Fair questions.
But at the end of the competition I was asked by the principal to give the kids a few pointers on how to speak in public. I asked her if there was anything that she particularly wanted me to get across, and she said 'not particularly, why don't you tell them that while we tell the good news about Jesus in lots of different ways, being able to speak it clearly in public is very important, and this speech competition gives them practice in that.' So I stood up and said some nice things about public speaking, and reminded these 30 or so kids, and the 8 or so parents, and the 6 or so staff about the gospel. That Jesus died for us and offers us forgiveness when we put our trust in him.
A questionable use of time? I don't think so.
1 comment:
Dave, sounds like an awesome use of your time. Very encouraging too.
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