So this past Sunday was my first at Calvary. My mom was over, having been with us in DC for the fourth, and asked me that morning if I was nervous. I said of course I was! I think that any pastor who isn't nervous their first Sunday at a new church probably doesn't take it seriously enough.
But God is good, the people at Calvary are wonderful, and I had a really great time. We had our two services, 8:30 and 11:00 a.m., and it was nice to be able to be part of the service but not have to preach since I was still getting the hang of things. I'll preach this Sunday, so in addition to continuing getting settled in, that's my main task this week. You know, it's a big deal, your first sermon!
I got to meet many people, and hopefully made a good start on remembering names. There are definitely a lot of names to remember! But with some hard work and focus, hopefully it won't take too long. I think one of the tricks to learning names is to never pretend to know a name you don't. Because once you've done that, it gets harder and harder to admit you don't know their name.
I got to visit with the Specials class, a great ministry to adults with developmental disabilities. Sunday School is after the first service, and since Chris had to leave to get back to camp, I brought them in one of our wedding pics to show them him too. What a great group of people and volunteers!
Continuing tradition (Calvary's tradition!) the air conditioning wasn't working for the early service. It apparently was an easy fix and was working by the second service, but it brought back memories for everyone of Ken's first service, when the electricity was out! I just told people it must have been the Holy Spirit heating up the place! :-)
Among the many people I got to meet and talk to, I got to catch up with a number of people even more in depth at a cookout Ken and Sandy had at their house for staff and some church leaders Sunday afternoon. It was great to have a casual setting to catch up with folks! I'm looking forward to working with all these great Calvary folks!
Yesterday was my day off...I must admit it felt weird taking a day off so soon after starting, but one of the things I've learned already in ministry is that time off rarely presents itself, and if you don't take regular time off, it catches up with you. Usually at the worst times. So it was nice to have some down time, and Chris even took some of the evening off. We got some ice cream (there really isn't much better than the Key Lime Pie ice cream at Bruester's) and we picked up the DVD of Religulous at Blockbusters.
That documentary is Bill Maher's look at religion. He's a self-professed atheist (well, maybe agnostic, etc...basically he likes doubt and distrusts certainty). I found the film really interesting He makes a lot of interesting points...some I agreed with, others I didn't personally, but which certainly speak to the views of many people whose experience with religion, not to mention Christianity, has been less about God and more about people's weaknesses and self-centeredness.
One aspect of Christianity that really gets me fired up is the whole prosperity Gospel stuff, so I must admit I was pretty pleased when he kind of tore into one pastor whose lizard-skin shoes seemed hardly to testify to the servanthood and emphasis on the poor that Jesus proclaimed.
After the movie, Chris and I both agreed it would be a great basis for a study, but you'd definitely have to not have people who are easily offended in the study. That's, honestly, how Maher got the movie together--too many people are so dang confident about their beliefs until you start questioning them, then they get defensive and downright nasty. But you know what? We shouldn't be bothered by questions. Or angered by people who don't agree with us. After all, sometimes they ask good questions we've never thought of before! And I suspect that for many Christians, Religulous asks a lot of new questions!
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