I'm working on a Sermon Series on how we're defined, focusing on our personal history, our choices, and faith.
It's not secret that I don't particularly like doing sermon series outside of the lectionary because it requires me to think that much more. Yeah, sounds lazy, but in honesty, a sermon series means looking beyond material that is available to me that offers suggestions for hymns and prayers for the day and litanies (if some of these words don't make sense, it all means "the stuff that you see in the bulletin and do doing the worship service).
That doesn't mean that I can't do it - I've had good training from some great instructors over the years, and I've also learned some lessons in the School of Hard Knocks, but preparing a worship service involves more than just me. It involves the musician who can or can't play a particular hymn. It involves the communion stewards that have everything ready before the service starts. It involves the secretary that has to put everything in the bulletin. It involves an tech who inputs everything from the bulletin into a computer to be projected on an overhead. It involves ushers who need to know if something is a little "different" that Sunday so they can have things ready during the service. It also involves the congregation who can get worn out if the standing and seating is too much here and there (yeah, I count the "ups and downs" in a service).
Every time I work on a service, I learn something more about myself, especially now with a lot happening around me. One of the things that seems to be happening a lot is how people say a lot before they realize what they are saying, or who they are saying it to without realizing the people they say it to might actually check sources or question something or call them on it.
If a person is going to claim something, I wonder if they realize the person they claim it to might actually know someone across the country or on the other side of the state. Or if someone wants to make statements on social media then retract and deleting the comments like they never happened, do they know that replies are spit over email (the comment "you can't unring a bell" comes to mind). Or someone might have the same medical condition as someone else and not know that knowledge isn't limited to themselves.
Sure - mistakes are made. Thanks to Facebook's way of "auto-loading" hyperlinks with the touch of a button, I posted "American the Beautiful" instead of "America the Beautiful". But my brother caught my error, politely pointed it out, and I edited my comment. I didn't drop the whole thing like it never happened. I didn't retaliate by finding errors in any of my brother's posts.
If you're not a police officer, don't try to play Adam-12. If you're not a paramedic, don't try to play Emergency. If you're not a shrink, don't try to play Dr. Ruth. If you're not a pastor, don't try to play Michael Slaughter.
