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<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s been five years now \u2026 beautiful years since we stepped away from church as we had known it for our entire lives. \u00a0I joked with people saying, \u201cYou\u2019ll never guess what they have every week between Friday and Monday. \u00a0There are two days, Saturday and Sunday. \u00a0Many people don\u2019t work on those days.\u201d \u00a0And in those five years, free from pastoral responsibilities, we enjoyed Sabbath rest, perhaps for the first time ever.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think I was ever a difficult person to live with but when the weekends came, the pressure of a Sunday morning sermon intensified. \u00a0I didn\u2019t want to waste people\u2019s time. \u00a0I imagined that a poorly prepared, 30-minute sermon, in a church of 400 people, wasted about 200 hours. \u00a0I manuscripted every sermon that I preached for 11 years. \u00a0In many ways it was enjoyable because I love to write but I was largely unavailable for my family on weekends, the only time they had \u201coff\u201d, so to speak.<\/p>\n
I justified my pastoral preoccupation easily, exercising great faith in the power of a Sunday sermon. \u00a0Now I realize that all a pastor brings to a pulpit is a sermon. \u00a0God however has a message. \u00a0It is not the sermon that makes a difference. \u00a0Not what I have to say but what God has to say. \u00a0My extreme commitment to a sermon is best described in an adage that my Dad used quite regularly whenever we were \u201coverdoing\u201d things. \u00a0He used to say in more descriptive terms, \u201cThere is a difference between scratching an itch and tearing it all to pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n
We moved home to Grand Manan for the summer as quickly as the school year ended. \u00a0A tired pastor friend asked me to fill in for him as he went on a 3-month Sabbatical. \u00a0I didn\u2019t even have to pray about it and quickly agreed. \u00a0His Sabbatical became a resignation. \u00a0I began to fall in love with the church (people) that he was leaving. \u00a0They asked us to stay. \u00a0There was no reason to say \u201cNo\u201d and Elaine and I sensed God changing our hearts toward the pastoral role.<\/p>\n
I still know two wonderful days between Friday and Monday. \u00a0Sermons have become less important to me. \u00a0The message however is more important than ever. \u00a0But that is what God does, not what I do. \u00a0What it amounts to is that I am taking myself a whole lot less seriously and God a whole lot more seriously. \u00a0I have no delusion about the ministry life. \u00a0It is difficult and demanding \u2026 impossible in our own strength. \u00a0But God is enough, if I follow rather than lead.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s my job.<\/p>\n
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I am a follower. \u00a0The scripture doesn\u2019t suggest that we follow leaders but that we follow followers. \u00a0Someone has said that everything rises and falls on leadership. \u00a0In Kingdom living, everything rises and falls on our willingness to follow.<\/p>\n
And that is exactly where I unexpectedly find myself. \u00a0In following, I find myself somewhere that I never thought I would be again. \u00a0And it\u2019s okay as long as I know that He is out in front. \u00a0Five years ago I told my wife,<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look down the road, all I see is Jesus. \u00a0I don\u2019t care what is ahead of Jesus. \u00a0I just care that He is ahead of me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Something beautiful has returned to my heart and spirit \u2026 something I thought I had lost forever.<\/p>\n
The joy of following.<\/p>\n
I am so grateful.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s been five years now \u2026 beautiful years since we stepped away from church as we had known it for our entire lives. \u00a0I joked with people saying, \u201cYou\u2019ll never guess what they have every week between Friday and Monday. \u00a0There are two days, Saturday and Sunday. \u00a0Many people don\u2019t work on those days.\u201d \u00a0And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-between-sundays"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6IX45-dV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}