The past few weeks have been very good, and very busy for me, but that being said I do not have to many new observations to share with you, so I will keep this post brief. Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to preach once more, I have shadowed the Pastor who has been mentoring me as he led and performed a funeral, and have had a number of pastoral experiences.conversations with people.
This past Sunday I had the opportunity to preach on Psalm 19. I do not know if you have ever preached or tried to do an in depth study of the Psalms, but most of them are fairly straightforward. The Psalms are songs and poetry, all of which are good and important, but there is not much more to say usually beyond what is written down. So I struggled to try to faithfully preach the text, but also avoid boring people to tears as I spoke for 25 minutes on little more than a dozen verses. So I did my best to offer insights and rather than go for an in depth word analysis, I decided to relate personal stories of how the passage related to me and my life. This went over very well and despite some significant trepidation I feel like it may have been one of my best messages. But the funny thing about sermon prep, at least in my experience, is that sometimes the key point of the passage is completely different when you are done, than when you started. I was reading Psalm 19 as a passage where David is praising God for the ways He shows Himself to David. And while that is true, the real beneficial observation is that before Jesus and the Spirit, humanity was incredibly limited in our ability to speak with and hear from the almighty. This reminded me of what one of the Trek Orientation speakers shared with me. 'The Gospel is as powerful today as it was 2000 years ago!" Jesus said that all the laws of the prophets and the old testament were about love (Mathew 22:40), and that His coming was the fulfillment of the old testament (Mathew 5:17). So everything I teach, everything I preach, all my interactions with believers and unbelievers should be directing people towards the life changing gospels of Jesus Christ. After all my job is not to make the seeds grow, but rather to plant them faithfully and trust in God for the rest.
This past week I have also had the opportunity to participate in the funeral of someone who was fairly well known at the church I have been serving with. I am still processing the experience, but it was fairly surreal to be at a funeral, but not know the deceased, or even their family. But it occurred to me, and not for the first time, is that the funeral is for the living and not the deceased. It is about honouring the memory of the departed, but also about reminding all in attendance about the resurrection and hope that can be found in Jesus. As I watched the pastor interact with mourners and preach a short message I noticed him doing these two things, honour the memory and preach the resurrection.
Other opportunities I have had over the past few weeks are attending a multi-denominational ministerial conversation. I was able to interact with and learn from Lutheran, Anglican, catholic and united church pastors/priests a really cool experience as they were very open to having their brain picked.
I attended a youth ministry class as a panelist along with 3 other people who I know fairly well, doing a lot of the same that I am, and most not for much longer than I had. It was a very cool and affirming experience, but also quite intimidating at times as the students asked many difficult and insightful questions.
I attended a meeting of several churches where I was able to hear firsthand testimony of a Mu$lim mi$$ion@ry, and how this person has been able to impact that area of the world for the kingdom of God.
I attended a poverty simulation hosted by the United Way in Winnipeg. Where I and about 40 other adults took on roles of people living in our city and how poverty affects them. It was incredibly profound as I found myself being the sole breadwinner in a family of 5 and having to trust my 'family' to make good choices. Then knowing and being able to see a way to get myself and family out of poverty, but being unable to share that vision or properly care for my fictitious children, because I was at work all day. It was a very different view of poverty than I had previously thought of.
All in all a good few weeks. Please keep me in prayer for continued wisdom in leadership of the youth and young adult ministries.
God Bless
- Stefan Klassen
