Right now I’m listening to Sufjan Stevens and putting the finishing touches on a message I will be giving at First United tomorrow (based on the ministry we do and on the gospel of the day Its on John 20:19-31). They are a supporter of the ministry I work for called ECM (ecumenical campus ministry) at the U of L as a student Chaplain . I really am not having any problem with the writing of the message however I am feeling very constrained by the time they are allowing me and the other student Chaplain Miriam to speak. Upon talking with the minister today she stressed the need for the message to be 10 min with the possibility of a maximum of 15 minutes. Which really only give me 7 minutes and 30 seconds to cover all of the following:
Introduce myself and where I am at currently in my life (which I could do for the 7 min 30 sec I have…)
- New student Chaplin ministry
- Campus care parcels/ LCC dinners
- Bible study/ Theology reading group
- Fellowship
- The future and role of ECM on campus as well as the role of the student Chaplin with in this (again this could fill up the whole 7 min and 30 sec)
Now I do realize I will not be crucified if I go over by a minute or two but the state of the “Sunday timeline” in general across many denominations is starting to make me irritated. Really how do you put a cap on the time you let someone share with you what they feel God is trying to say to you? If you think about all the time you spend doing useless and futile things thought out the week (thing that your time should not even be spent doing and yet you and I allow ourselves to get sucked back into doing them) and set it against the time you devote to God I think there would be a sad realization of where our worship is going.
Yet we easily let ourselves become deeply upset when the preacher goes over the 15 or 20 minutes we “allow” them to speak that week. And some weeks sadly this church service is the only time we devote to God. The only time we offer ourselves up to Him in worship. When we do allow ourselves the time to partake in these worship services we still drift off on trains of thought for the hours and days following the service. I really tried to say focused all throughout church last week and I could not do it for the entirety of the service. During a song I know by heart I found myself thinking about my looming exams and the lack of a response to all my summer job applications. This drifting off had nothing to do with boredom with the service as that is a rare case for me. I am blessed to be a part of an awesome church. But yet I still drifted off. Is it just human nature? Perhaps…but maybe its something more.
Enough of that I have to get back to widdeling down the message to my 7min and 30 sec time period. I will put the message me and the other student chaplin gave up on here after tomorrow.
Peace -Skakes
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