Settling In

I'm getting used to this blogging business I guess, hence the long delay in posting. It's been a good few weeks though - busy but good. I've now been asked by parishioners at two of my churches (with utter seriousness) whether they were hearing a bit of an English accent in me when I presided or preached at the service. Ha! I can only assume that is coming from my choral training in High School and College - they teach you techniques and diction that helps you project and be understood better. I have noted, though, that the distinction between English and American accents burrs for me when listening to different music groups, so maybe there's something in that. Neat thought anyways.

I'm still filling out my weekly schedule. I'm working about 40 hours a week even though I'm told I should be leveling off at 50-60 hours per week. Well, I'm certainly not going to complain in the meantime - 40 hours isn't nothing. However, I've got a few weekly events coming online in the near future that I'm going to be overseeing.

I am having an interesting time getting used to preaching on a regular basis. It is revealing to me how easy it is for me to slip into preaching the same sermon over and over, simply using the text of the day to put it into a new costume. I'm finding it is taking more creativity than I had anticipated to articulate the Gospel in completely new ways each sermon. This'll probably be a growing edge for me for some time.

I was quite embarrassed to find out that my supervisor has already picked up on my forgetful and tardy streak. It comes from being a bit ADD I guess, and I really don't like it. I have my good weeks, of course, but then comes the bad weeks when I really let my guard down and get absorbed in projects. Ah well, at the least I can say that I gave them fair warning.

I miss my college days, and seminary as well. It's so much more fun doing all this thinking stuff when you have no responsibility except to your own GPA. As it is, I'm now responsible for what a great many people hear about God in any given week. That I find this intimidating is probably a good sign, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant.