This morning began with the staff fellowship. We gathered with all the non-teaching staff to sing, pray, and hear the word proclaimed. The Evangelist taught the lesson to the staff today. Starting the day with staff fellowship is always a great way to center oneself before a long day of ministry. After staff fellowship, Pastor George and I sat down during his office hours to do the learning covenant required by CTS. It was basically an opportunity for us to sit down and discuss learning goals and expectations for this internship. During this time we were interrupted by phone calls relating to a church crisis. The Pastor and Evangelist went offsite to deal with this situation. They feared my presence in this situation could have put me in potential danger because the member in question is psychologically unstable and they feared my presence as an unknown entity might do more harm than good. I appreciated their concern and stayed behind at the church to get some work done. I had a cup of tea and a snack while I did my work.
I found out last night that I will be preaching in the Secondary School Service and the Youth Service on Sunday morning. I’m thrilled to be given this opportunity but I also don’t have much time to prepare. In the past I’ve spent nearly two weeks preparing my sermons. I’ve only ever preached three times in my preaching class so this will be the first time I’ll be preaching in an actual church setting. I’m appropriately nervous but honored to be trusted to do this. Sermon expectations here (like everything else) are very different from the United States. Sermons are expected to:
1. crucify and resurrect Jesus every time. 2. last for 30 minutes minimum. 3. utilize lots of scriptural references (I lost track after 15 during Sunday’s sermon).
4. stay close to the text and never use personal anticdotes or stories. I was taught very differently and even discouraged to adapt some of these practices in my preaching by my professors in preaching class this spring. So, now, I have to adopt enough of these practices to make my preaching acceptable in this culture without compromising my preaching style or theology. Thus the struggle. It’s common for churches here to have a yearly theme verse and all sermons preached throughout the year relate to this very. Sukari’s theme verse this year is Mark 12:30-31. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.... and love your neighbor as yourself.” In addition to the yearly theme, each month has a sub-theme. May is all about giving thanks to God (not sure how this fits with the theme verse). Last week the pastor discussed “Thanking God for who He is” and the theme for this week is “Thanking God for what He has done.” That was the only perimeter I’ve been given for this week. In class, I was taught to choose a passage and then develop a focus statement from what the Spirit reveals in the text. Here, I’m being asked to do the opposite; pick a passage to accompany an assigned theme. Definitely different and definitely not a practice I plan to maintain when I return to the States. Because of the obvious denominational and theological differences between PC(USA) and PCEA, the staff here is watching me very closely to make sure I don’t say anything that they would deem theologically deviant. It’s been made very clear that if I play by their rules, I will get opportunities to teach and preach, but if I don’t, I will only be able to watch and listen. So I hope that I am able to create a sermon that is acceptable here but doesn’t stray too far from my authentic preaching voice. The passage I’ve picked with help from the Spirit is Luke 17:11-19 where Jesus heals ten lepers. Stay turned to see how it goes... Any extra prayers relating to this would be greatly appreciated! After some sermon prep, we asked the teachers fellowship that meets once a month. Pastor George taught a lesson that drew from Psalm 133. Later this afternoon, I will accompany Pastor George as he teaches a lesson to high schoolers. This evening, I will be sitting in on a marriage counseling session. I’m super pumped for that. ~ Nell in Nairobi