Preacher Matt

Matt got another chance to preach at the Church of the Brethren in Sheldon yesterday. He did a great job, and it's always fun to go back there and see several people that were a part of my formative years (this is the church that my family and I attended while I was in middle school through high school).

Matt spoke on the Yoke of Jesus, and relied heavily on Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis. It was well done, and he even stirred up some conversation afterward. I did the music, of course, and because it's a very traditional church, and due to the topic being discussed, I decided to sing, "He Shall Feed His Flock" from Handel's Messiah (later text includes, "Take His yoke upon you and learn of Him..."). Then, because I was on a classical vein anyway, I decided to do a Chopin piece for a prelude. Got to flex a few muscles that I don't usually use.

In other ministry news, Matt emailed the pastor of the church here in Sioux Falls that we're still in contact with about a possible worship leader job. The process is going very slowly (he applied in June). They've been very busy the last 2 months with their one-year anniversary, and will try to get us in to lead worship sometime soon (kind of an interview). I'd like to know what kind of timeline we're looking at here, because New Hope Family, where we currently attend would like me to do a children's Christmas program again, (and if I don't do it, no one else will), but I don't want to commit myself to something I'm not going to be able to follow through with.

I've also been asked by one of my new USF students about possibly putting together a worship set for her home church in Lester, IA (I'd guess the population of Lester to be around 200). I stressed how important it is to me to be committed to my home church (always an important thing for me with college students), and that I'm going to have to be gone at least 2 times in the next 2 months (last week, and the weekend of the ART) already, so it might have to be after Christmas...

The weekend of the ART (see previous post), we are going to have a chance to lead worship with my best friend from high school, Amy Lu (I was Amy Sue... we did everything together). She lives in Sheldon, and she and her husband, Abe are heavily involved in a new Evangelical Free church there. It's as fraught with difficulties as any church, and we're excited to be able to jump in and add to the complexity! At least for one weekend. More than anything, I'm excited to sing with Amy Lu again. We haven't had a chance to do that since high school --- quite a few years ago. I'm so glad we're still friends!