Milestone

Today we celebrated pastor Richards 100th sermon! As friends, as brothers and sisters, as congregants, being young and old and socially diverse, we all celebrate this milestone. We celebrate Richards personal victory of overcoming or striving to overcome his perceived limitations of self....ooops too wordy, I just confused myself.

As all people called to a task, one identifies ones own weekness and tries to overcome or get better. Thats natural and good. However, often times that perceived limitation ways heavy on us and we perhaps use that as a reason why we dont answer a call.

In Richards case, he finds the writing of the sermon a most challenging and daunting task. He says that the sermon prep is a joy and exploring and researching the topic or verses is fun. Its putting it into words on paper thats the difficult thing.

So now, as our pastor, he has overcome this difficulty 100 times. I might add that I have never heard him preach a bad sermon. In fact, Richard is a great speaker and I personally beleive he is fully annointed by God.

Richard was saying that he couldnt wait for the day that he could go directly from research and prayer, to verbal deliverance of the message. I once had a pastor who was taught that way in seminary. He was taught how to completely give himself through prayer and eager research to then to be able to deliver the word direct and verbally. No paer allowed. Sounds daunting. No erasers for your ears. No cutting and pasting your voice. No autosave and screen saver as you step away for further reflection.

Anyway, hats off to Richard. He is a great pastor and a wonderful speaker. Any limitations he feels internally, in no way evidence themselves through my eyes or ears. So my prayer is a simple one...that God would continue to speak to us through His faithful servant Richard.