this is no longer my blog

it has been a loooooooooooooooooooooong day.
I think it goes without saying, especially for regular readers of this blog, that I think Sunday mornings come much too early. Of course, you think this would then affect the time that I go to bed the previous evening. Occasionally, it does. But most often? Yeah, that would be a big no. I've never claimed to be the smartest person alive, so cut me some slack.
Anyway, so worship was at 8 this morning, and since supervising was nursing a sore throat, I was in charge of most of the worship. Except preaching. Which was fine with me. So I got to do a lot more of the liturgy than normal. Chanted a few things that are primarily ordained pastor parts of the liturgy, which was neat.
For Sunday School/confirmation today, one of the women of the congregation had said that she was going to be coming in to help the 8th graders make banners for Confirmation Sunday which would display the Bible verse that they had selected. The way she made it sound, it seemed like it would take up most of the class period. So I planned nothing for that day. So she came in with some paper and sharpie markers and all they needed to do was write their name and Bible verse on one of these pieces of paper and she would take them home and fuse them [or some such similar verb] to the fabric of their banners. Then, she was done. That took all of about 5 minutes. So I had nothing to do with the youth for the rest of the time. Luckily, this Sunday was also "Pancakes with Pastor" Sunday where the sunday schoolers (5th grade on down, of course) get to eat pancakes with supervising pastor. While I teach confirmation, that supposedly supervising pastor and I are TEAM TEACHING. Fair? I think perhaps that could be up for debate. Anyway, I went downstairs and asked the women making pancakes if there would be enough to feed the 8th graders, too. And they said sure. But today was also the day when a couple people from an area outdoor ministry were coming to talk to the Sunday School youth. So the 8th graders had to sit through a brief presentation about church camp. They weren't excited. They complained. Which seems to be their general attitude and reaction to just about everything. I think this group of youth has made me rethink youth ministry moreso than any other experience in my life. Even my previous experience with crappy pastors when I was a youth director.
Anyway, after the presentation, four girls mentioned they were thinking about going to camp. Cheeseball girl included. Although the reason that she and her little henchgirl decided to go to camp was to meet boys. But I don't believe that it is outside of the Holy Spirit's power to work through motives such as those. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
But while they were sitting through the camp presentation I got a chance to hang out with some of the younger kids. And hold a baby. So that was good.
Then, after our second worship service this morning we had a Special Congregational Meeting about refinancing mortgages and loans and whatnot. Even though it went fairly smoothly, that kind of thing is never fun.
Then I had about 50 minutes to run to the store, buy some microwave popcorn, milk duds and pop, come home and pop the popcorn and get it over to church for our Young Adult group viewing of The Luther Movie. I was planning on our base group of about 8, plus perhaps hopefully some additonal extras. But at the congregational meeting I had one couple bail because the wife is pregnant and been put on bed rest by her doctor. Then, about ten minutes before the event, another couple called and said they couldn't make it because they weren't having a "good day." I'm guessing it had something to do with their three young children. And since they are two of the bigger advocates for this young adult group, I am willing to accept that as an excuse from them. The third couple pulled in right at 2:00 which was when it was scheduled to start. And supervising pastor's daughter was there, too. So we had four of our eight, which was not bad. Although I had popped four bags of microwave popcorn. We managed to take out about two and a half. Not bad.
So after we watched and discussed, I moved to the sanctuary to help with worship planning of our youth service. Basically I sat around and distracted the youth. A job I'm very good at.
Then after that was our senior high bible study. There has been a lot of stuff going on the past couple of weeks, and the youth haven't had a real Bible study for the past several. So they were hungry for one, I think. And they kind of took control and I sat back and watched and listened. It was pretty cool.
Then I drove through Taco Bell and ordered some food. My first real food of the day. If taco bell food can be considered real.
Now I don't feel so hot.
I also bought "The Greatest Story Ever Told" on DVD and I started to watch part of it this evening before realizing I did not have the attention span for that endeavor. Although I was impressed with the caucasianness of first century middle eastern people. They are pretty danged white. I never knew. I guess you learn something new everyday.