A glimpse of rural ministry

Okay, so I haven't written an entry for a little while, so I'm just going to offer some thoughts and observations from my little bit of time so far. First off, there are a lot of really great pastors here in the Southwest Minnesota Synod. Yesterday we had our first pastor's conference of the year, and it was well attended. There were several new faces among us, including yours truly along with another intern named Bruce, a second-career guy like me, so we played a game to get to know one another. You may have heard of this game, where you write down three statements about yourself, two true ones and one false one, and people try to guess which is the false statement. I was surprised at how many people were interested in learning my statements. In case you are curious what I wrote, I said, "My wife and my grandmother have the same name. I play trombone, and I drive a Chrysler." Several people guessed which statement is false, because they didn't recall seeing any Chryslers in the parking lot when we arrived. Darn! I wish I had thought about that. Anyway, the conference went well and it was a good time of sharing ministry ideas and other techniques. It seems that several of the churches are working with trying to get more people interested in Bible study, and there were lots of good ideas, including many ecumenical ideas where we would share study leadership responsibilities with other churches in our area. I think people around here want to feel connected, since there is so much distance between neighbors, so when a few churches pool their resources, more people come to events, people feel more connected and get to know more neighbors, and it is more fun. Most churches here are struggling with the same issue that most churches everywhere are struggling with, and that is how to involve more young adults. In Prairie Star Ministries, we have started a Facebook group, and Mark, my supervisor, is astounded at how quickly it has developed. We have two groups functioning, one for youth and one for young adults. We shall see how well we interact in cyber-space.

Confirmation class is going well. I have five students, and they are interested and engaged with what I am teaching them. Hopefully that will continue. We are using a web-based curriculum called "Here We Stand" by Augsburg Fortress publishers. I like it, but it comes with a lot of built in expectations about how much time I have to teach each lesson. The lessons all come with a Power-Point presentation, so that helps keep the students engaged in the material, plus it highlights the most important ideas in the text, so it assists in memorization. The other day, however, I went to open my power-point presentation and it just plain wasn't there! Oh well, I sighed, and I just taught "Old School" with my Bible and the lesson outline.

Next week I preach my first sermon. In the meantime, I will enjoy the fruit of someone elses labor, sort-of like Jonah, although that isn't what my sermon is about. I'll try to keep you posted on the doings in my world. Blogged by Don