Early day session 2
Monday, November 27, 2006
The second session was slightly more random in direction but very helpful.
We started by looking at how Jesus had priorities – his was to get to Jerusalem – and because of that he was able to say no to people. He stared people in the face with real needs and still said no. What is your Jerusalem – you can’t meet the needs of every child and leader. If you think you can then you are using your ministry to hide an arrogant ego.
From this we had a great period of time on the need for Sabbath and how that should look. We looked at the importance of 1 day of rest in 6 – to book periods in the diary – to know that all you are going to do is to go for a walk and then sit and look out of the window – but the rest and refreshment gained from that is more important than productivity.
The key to it all is sustainability – he gave the example of a pastor who when interviewing for a youth worker said he didn’t want someone to give 110% for 2 years but 85% for 35 years. Can you do it for 20 years plus?
We then jumped across to examine preaching and teaching. Rob suggests that we need a shift from the emergency of trying to get a session sorted for a couple of days time to allowing God to give us something to say. He does this through a long process which might easily take 10 months. Starting with just a random thought Rob will try and develop it in to a sermon or series of sermons – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But if you aren’t desperately searching for a sermon for a couple of days time then it doesn’t matter if they don’t all work out.
We started by looking at how Jesus had priorities – his was to get to Jerusalem – and because of that he was able to say no to people. He stared people in the face with real needs and still said no. What is your Jerusalem – you can’t meet the needs of every child and leader. If you think you can then you are using your ministry to hide an arrogant ego.
From this we had a great period of time on the need for Sabbath and how that should look. We looked at the importance of 1 day of rest in 6 – to book periods in the diary – to know that all you are going to do is to go for a walk and then sit and look out of the window – but the rest and refreshment gained from that is more important than productivity.
The key to it all is sustainability – he gave the example of a pastor who when interviewing for a youth worker said he didn’t want someone to give 110% for 2 years but 85% for 35 years. Can you do it for 20 years plus?
We then jumped across to examine preaching and teaching. Rob suggests that we need a shift from the emergency of trying to get a session sorted for a couple of days time to allowing God to give us something to say. He does this through a long process which might easily take 10 months. Starting with just a random thought Rob will try and develop it in to a sermon or series of sermons – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But if you aren’t desperately searching for a sermon for a couple of days time then it doesn’t matter if they don’t all work out.
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