Tag Archives: lay speaking

06.17.13
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My summer tour

Yesterday, I blogged about a busy week ahead, with lay speaking assignments bookending a week at Mountain T.O.P. But what I didn’t mention is that I have a couple of more lay speaking assignments on the radar beyond that, including one at a church I’ve not spoken at before and where I have several friends.

Here’s the rundown:

June 23, 9:30 a.m.: Mt. Lebanon UMC, near Wheel in southwestern Bedford County

June 23, 11 a.m.: Cannon UMC, Shelbyville

June 30, 10 a.m.: First UMC Shelbyville

July 14, 10 a.m.: First UMC Shelbyville

Sept. 1, 11 a.m.: Morton Memorial UMC, Monteagle

I am excited about Morton Memorial. I’ve never spoken there before, but I’ve been to the facility on numerous occasions. When LEAMIS was based in Marion County, we used to use Morton for board meetings and for mission team training events. Several of my Mountain T.O.P. and LEAMIS friends are affiliated with the church, although at least one of them will be on the Holy Land trip that is taking Rev. Amanda Diamond away from the pulpit that weekend.

It will be an interesting weekend for me, because I’ll probably be up really late the night before covering the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration for the newspaper. But I couldn’t resist the chance to speak at Morton. I understand that Kylene McDonald was responsible for recommending me.

06.16.13
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A busy couple of weeks

OK, here’s the schedule.

I started work on a sermon today. This week (which should also be relatively busy at work) I’ve got to finish the sermon and make some final preparations for Mountain T.O.P. Adults In Ministry (AIM). On Sunday, as a lay speaker, I will load up my car, preach the sermon at Mt. Lebanon UMC at 9:30, then at Cannon UMC at 11, then I will head immediately for Altamont, arriving (with permission) a little late for AIM. I’ll miss orientation but should make it in time for opening worship.

I’ll return from Mountain T.O.P. on Saturday the 29th. On the morning of Sunday the 30th, I’ll preach pretty much the same sermon from the week before at my home church, First UMC Shelbyville. Then, that afternoon, I’ll go to First UMC Tullahoma for a big lay servant event, titled “Fan The Flame,” where I’ll be one of several people giving five-minute messages. That one is already written, and has been for several weeks, but I’ll have to tweak it at some point between now and then to tie in better with the two messages that will precede it. 

Fortunately, neither Rev. Doug Dezotell from Mt. Lebanon and Cannon nor Rev. Lloyd Doyle from my home church minds me straying from the Lectionary this once (in fact, it was Rev. Doyle’s idea that I use the same sermon from the week before, since I won’t have any time for sermon-writin’ on the mountain).

Because my AIM trip was such a last-minute, hastily-arranged affair, I still won’t know exactly what I’m doing in Summer Plus until I hear from the staff. Last week, I was trying to upgrade my old second-hand, rarely-used laptop to the latest version of the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system so that I could take it to camp and use it for e-mail and to type up our group project in creative writing class (assuming that I’ll be teaching creative writing, and I don’t know for sure yet). But something about (or coincidental to) the Ubuntu upgrade has wrecked the laptop’s networking capabilities. It won’t recognize its old PCM-CIA wireless card, and it won’t even recognize being plugged in by Ethernet cable. I can still use it for the creative writing project, but I’ll have to check my e-mail by phone for the week.

Andy Burroughs attended the AIM week which ended yesterday, and he’s posted photos and videos, which only make me that much more anxious to get back to the mountain. In some ways, I feel more alive sitting in Friends Cabin (in the lobby or on the back porch) than anywhere else on the planet. It looks strange in Andy’s photos to see Friends Cabin’s Tyvek-wrapped doppelganger sitting right next door.

By the way, AIM is still in need of home repair volunteers. If you can arrange to go away next week on short notice – or if you want the dates of another AIM week later in the summer – click the link above or give me a call.

07.22.12
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Common English

When I preach somewhere as a lay speaker, I base my sermons on the Revised Common Lectionary – a rotating three-year schedule, used by several Protestant denominations, of Bible readings. Each week, the Lectionary has a Psalm, a reading from one of the Gospels, another Old Testament reading and another New Testament reading. There may be a common theme to the readings. A good preacher can work several of the readings into the same sermon; amateurs like myself usually pick one of the readings on which to focus.

Some of the small, rural churches where I’m called upon to speak have preachers that don’t use the Lectionary, and even at the churches where it is used the congregation may not be aware of it and certainly wouldn’t be bothered if a guest speaker preached a non-Lectionary sermon. But I find the Lectionary to be good discipline – it keeps me from only preaching on topics I like or in which I am interested.

Normally, when I get ready to write a sermon, I go to Vanderbilt’s online lectionary, download the readings for the Sunday in question, and paste them into a LibreOffice document. Eventually, as the sermon takes shape, I delete the readings to which I won’t be specifically referring.

The Vanderbilt site uses the New Revised Standard Version, which until recently had been the version of choice for a lot of United Methodist publications. Lately, though, I’ve noticed more use of the Common English Bible, which was released last year. This morning, sitting in on a Sunday School class at my father’s new church, I noticed that “Adult Bible Studies,” the ubiquitous Sunday School literature published by the United Methodist Publishing House, has switched to the CEB, and even has an ad for the Bible on its back cover trumpeting the fact.

I had jumped on a free Kindle download of the CEB a while back, and I’m taking a closer look at it now. (The download is still available, but no longer free.) So far, I like what I see.

For those of my readers who aren’t theologically literate, there are scores of different Bible versions available nowadays. They fall into two groups: translations and paraphrases. Translations like the NRSV are done by teams of scholars, and their first priority is accuracy to the best available original texts. (Strangely enough, we now have access to older, and presumably less-corrupted, manuscripts than were known about in the days when King James commissioned a standard English translation of the Bible.) Paraphrases, like Eugene Peterson’s justly-popular “The Message,” are usually the work of one individual. They put an emphasis on readability and contemporary English.

Both translations and paraphrases have their place. A translation is essential for serious study or theological discussion. A good paraphrase, however, makes the scripture come alive in a way that more formal translations usually don’t.

The Common English Bible, while still a translation involving scholars from multiple denominations, has made a special effort to enhance readability, giving it a little of the informality of a paraphrase.

Anyway, I was setting up the lectionary passages today for my sermon next Sunday at Ransom UMC and I decided to replace the NRSV with the passages from CEB, which I looked up, cut and pasted from the official CEB web site. I think this may be my habit going forward.

08.29.11
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Vive lapel difference

At the end of the lay speaking class on Sunday, we received certificates and lay speaker pins. The certificates had been mistakenly dated “2010,” instead of “2011,” but the consensus of the group was not to get them reprinted. I did cross out “2010” and write in “2011,” if only to remind myself what year I took the class so that, a few years from now, I’ll know whether or not I am on the clock to take an advanced class in order to remain certified.

DSCI0003-1

In the past, I’d always received a lapel pin like the one at top left – a depiction of the official logo for United Methodist Lay Speaking Ministries. This time around, however, they gave us the smaller and more-minimalist version seen in the foreground. I don’t think this is a case of “old” and “new” designs – I’m guessing both are available at Cokesbury, and have been all along – but simply a case of our new district lay speaking director making a different choice about which kind of pin to buy. Anyway, I like having both kinds of pin. The minimalist version actually looks more like the lapel pins worn by some members of the clergy.

08.27.11
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Long day

It’s been a busy week, with the start of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, but today I was on a different track. As a certified United Methodist lay speaker, I have to take an advanced lay speaking course at least every three years. A few months ago, I thought I needed to take one this year – I had actually miscalculated and could have waited until next year. But, no matter – the courses are always worthwhile.

At the training being held this weekend at Fellowship UMC in Murfreesboro, there’s a basic lay speaking course and a choice of two advanced courses. I had already taken one of the advanced courses. You can repeat a course as often as you like, and it often turns out to be a different experience depending on the teacher and the periodically-updated curriculum, but in this case I decided to try the other course, on the topic of public prayer.

I left the apartment early this morning – which is a good thing, because I went to the wrong place. I thought I had a general idea where Fellowship UMC was, but when I plugged the address into Google Maps I decided I had been mistaken. I followed the directions to 2511 Highway 99 and … there was nothing there.

That’s because I was on Highway 99 east of Murfreesboro – Bradyville Pike – not Highway 99 west of Murfreesboro – New Salem Highway.

Because I had given myself plenty of time, I wasn’t actually late. But it felt late, and I barged in flustered and with a bit of a cloud over my head. It dissipated as the morning went on. Linda Powell, a former member of First UMC who now lives in Smyrna, is one of my classmates. the Rev. Miriam Seyler was our instructor today, and she’s excellent, although a funeral which she must officiate means someone else will have to teach the remainder of the class tomorrow.

It was a good day, but a long one. I decided not to go to the Celebration tonight, although I will stay up long enough to post the winners of the stallion classes on the newspaper web site.

03.21.10
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Nap time

Today is the first time since March 12 I haven’t had to spend hours at The Fly Arts Center. I have completed two performances this weekend, worked a Saturday shift at the newspaper, and preached this morning. I warned my co-worker and classmate Becky McBee that I might skip this afternoon’s class reunion planning meeting, and in fact I am about to hit the sofa for some badly-needed rest.

03.21.10
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Give God Your Best

Tip for layspeakers: Don’t agree to take a lay speaking assignment the same week in which you spend eight straight days rehearsing and performing a play. You’re not going to have enough time to write your best sermon.

Mt. Carmel Baptist Church
March 21, 2010

John 12:1-8 (NRSV)
12:1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

12:2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.

12:3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

12:4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,

12:5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”

12:6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)

12:7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.

12:8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

On my first visit to Kenya, in 2004, our mission team saw a number of different sights. We got our first, heartbreaking look at the Kibera slums, an area of about three square miles where about a million people live, squashed together in little dirt-wall, tin-roof sheds, without running water, and with very poor sanitary conditions.

We also drove through the big city of Nairobi, parts of which look like many other big cities. One of my teammates that year, Kylene McDonald, noted a very large and modern-looking church, and it really bothered her. With the poverty we had seen just a few minutes earlier and just a few miles away, it seemed offensive, to Kylene, that a church would spend that kind of money on a building.
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03.14.10
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Long day, but a good one

5:55 a.m. CDT: Got up, missing an hour of sleep that disappeared overnight.
6:30 a.m.: Arrived at First UMC Shelbyville for men’s club breakfast. Discovered that, because I had casually mentioned that I might not be there to help cook, they had made preparations for me not to be there. I normally dice potatoes, but our kitchen czar Andy Borders had bought frozen pre-diced potatoes. I could have slept an hour and arrived for the breakfast meeting at 7:30.
7:30 a.m.: Take notes on men’s club meeting, for which I am secretary, and enjoy a hearty breakfast.
9:45 a.m.: Head for Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Rutherford County for lay speaking assignment. Sit in on last part of Sunday School. Service goes well; sermon was posted earlier to this blog.
12:10 p.m.: Lunch at Taco Bell.
12:30 p.m.: Walmart. I bought a carrying case and a MicroSD card for the new cell phone which will be arriving this week.
1:30 p.m.: Arrive at T-G to wait for 2 p.m. meeting for planning my 30-year high school class reunion:

From 2010-03-14

3 p.m.: Arrive at Fly Arts Center for tech rehearsal. It’s a long afternoon and evening, and by the end of it — once the tech stuff was worked out and we actually ran through the play — I was dog-tired and my performance suffered as a result, flubbing a few lines I know I have memorized. Even so, our overall performance as a cast was good, a notable improvement from last week.
8:30 p.m.: Home. I watched “The Simpsons” from the DVR, took a bath, and munched on trail mix. I am, at this point, waiting for one of my T-G co-workers to e-mail me a flash page which we will use on the web site for our annual baseketball bracket contest. Once that’s taken care of, I’ll go to bed.

03.11.10
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Almost Friday

It’s been a long and tiring week, but tonight’s rehearsal went very well, and sort of energized me.

We’ve been behind schedule, for some unavoidable reasons related to illness in the cast, and so we’ve been working hard for the past week. And it’s been busy at work as well. I had been feeling really wrung-out.

John Jones, our director, had a schedule conflict tonight, but we’ve been so far behind, we couldn’t afford to skip the rehearsal. So Janice Cole, who keeps the Fly Arts Center running and who has directed many of the earlier plays there, ran tonight’s rehearsal. It was fun to have a different perspective, and Janice worked with some character motivations and punched up a few of our lines.

Janice is also the contact person for reservations, by the way, so please call her at (931) 703-7613 to make yours (…he said, dropping a hint).

No rehearsal tomorrow night, but I have to work on my sermon for Sunday morning at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Rutherford County. One of my father’s closest friends is the pastor there, and I’ve filled in for him before (as has my father — they are amenable to undercover Methodists).

We’ll have a rehearsal Saturday night. Then, on Sunday, I have men’s club breakfast at my own church, then I will drive to Mt. Carmel to preach, then I will stop by the Times-Gazette for the first few minutes of planning for my 30-year high school class reunion, then it’s back to the Fly for tech rehearsal. Not much of a “day of rest” this week.