Sunday, January 24, 2010

Decisions decisions...

One of the difficult decisions a 'one off' preacher needs to make is 'Which text will I preach from?'

I have such a decision ahead of me in the next couple of days. I've been asked to preach at our new 9:30 service next Sunday, and as usual its the 'your choice' direction from the organisers.

But wait - I also have another choice. Which language?

If I preach in English (I will be translated) its so much more straight forward. Preparing is quicker, speaking is more natural and I can concentrate more on delivery and emphasis, rather than being tied down to my text and wrestling with pronounciation.

But then again, I need to preach I Spanish - because thats what I need to learn to do. It means many more hours preparing and practicing - and even then people might not understand what I'm saying??

So what to do?

Actually I think the decision has a lot to do with what happens tomorrow. Monday afternoon could be a big preparation time for me, or it could be a time when I meet with a guy to start working through of the Moore College courses.

We'll see how it goes.

2 comments:

Peter Sholl said...

It's Mark 6 - Jesus feeding the 5,000. In Spanish!!

Anthony Douglas said...

Hi Pete.

CMS suggested keeping up with missio blogs just now. What a sensible thought. Good to be reminded regularly that I often don't think of obvious things!

So I picked yours up and thought it deserved more comments than it seemed to be getting...and have one here:

First, thanks for the amusing image of Jesus feeding the 5000 using tapas.

Second, my principle, for what it's worth, in such situations, is to avoid doing what's expected. People will be more likely to listen. Going with Spanish means you probably pass my stringent test ;-)

Love what you're all doing over there. Just prayed for you. And will try to keep it up...