Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Entering Full-Time Ministry

A little updates of my life.
I officially entered full-time ministry in June! :) It's been almost three months now. 
I have a lot of things to talk about.

My room
First, I'm currently staying in a parsonage with my senior pastor and his wife. I have my own room. It's my bedroom-cum-office (yes, we do not have an office).

I love the room! It's so comfortable! (which makes it somewhat non-conducive to work. Haha)

Morning routine 
Me, the senior pastor, and his wife have a morning routine. Each of us will wake up before 7am and have our morning devotion, then at 7 we will gather in the living room to share what we have been reflected on and updates on church ministry, prayer requests, even on each other lives. The time for sharing then followed by the time for praying. We pray for all things that we can remember of. After praying, we would have breakfast together.
     I love this morning routine. I think as Christians there is nothing that can bond us more compared to a fellowship in sharing God's Word, praying, and having meal together. And it really boosts our teamwork as partners in ministry :)

Preaching
I'm grateful for many opportunities given to me to deliver sermon. I would preach in the main service once a month and in the teens service once or twice a month.
     I enjoy preaching. I enjoy sermon preparation: reading and reflecting on the text, looking for illustrations, observing the world and the lives of people, and making the text relevant for the lives of people today. I am still very nervous before delivering my sermon, but there is always an immense joy after I finished preaching. I appreciate the varieties of comments provided by people. Most of them are encouragements like, "Good message!" (I think for this they should thank the Bible, not me. hehe..), "Concise and clear!", (I think it's because of my introverted nature, I don't really like to talk a lot in public. And this is how I was trained in Trinity Theological College Singapore).  I also receive constructive feedback like "You talk too fast" (Yup, a tendency as a visual person), "You need to improve your tone, practice your consonant, use your eyes to speak, repeat your ideas, have a more relaxed introduction, clearer and more actual application." Those are feedbacks that I appreciate very much. They have made me a better preacher.

Well... overall I'm still adapting with my new life. It is super-flexible (I have no office hours), so I need to discipline myself. Lord, help me!
   
   

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