Continuing Ed Day One: Review of the past year

I loaded up the mystery van with the contents of the ACME Q46 Sermon Generator and trundled up to the library of the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (me and four other people occupied the building for the day).  I'm not sure what was going on but there were some painters working in the main hall (which is not unusual, it is low time a perfect time for sprucing up the place) but, they were playing the Pointer Sisters really loud (which is not odd either, but the volume level was - for the record it is impossible to be in a bad mood with the Pointer Sisters welcoming you to a theological library).  And for the record I will be an adjunct faculty member at UTS this Fall (Baptist History and Polity) don't believe me?  Check this out.

I started the day off by reviewing a year's worth of sermons and writing.  It was painful and kind of sad to be done with my review in 90 minutes, especially knowing that it took me countless hours to produce them.  Verdict: some of the sermons were so good I couldn't believe I wrote them and some of them were so bad I was ashamed to have my name associated with them.  I also realized that I start off strong but tail off by the end of the month.  I also try to do too much with my sermons.  I also have some good ideas but not enough time for them to flourish (thus the dedicated week of sermon prep).  Finally, I repeated the theme of a sermon in consecutive weeks.  Which again punctures my nascent theory that everyone pays attention to every word I say.  Which again proves my theory that preachers can never repeat themselves enough!

After a period of review I went to work mapping out the year.  I identified 12 themes for the 2014-15 year.  Armed with my themes I went digging in the stacks for books.  It was a good day.

Today I'll be at the Central Mpls Library continuing the quest and reading.