Anniversary!


A year ago at this time I was writing to you as your newly appointed pastor from San Antonio Texas.  This year I am writing to you as the old guy, good and broken in after a whole year, from Washington, D.C.  The reason for the distance both years is the same.  No, I’m not trying to avoid you, I’m here to learn and grow as a preacher.  This is the Festival of Homiletics where excellent preachers and teachers of preaching present sermons and lectures from Monday evening through Friday noon.  One after another.  We’re on dinner break and I can hear Tara tapping her foot waiting for me to finish this all the way out here!

But why, you might ask, why am I attending a conference on preaching when that is all that I do back home?  And I’ve been doing it for a long time.  And I regularly teach others in our conference about preaching.  You would think at my advanced age that I would know all I need to know about the art and craft of preaching, and slack off on the learning and growing bit.

A few years ago in a previous church I invited the whole congregation to join me in an exercise to read through the Bible – the whole Bible – in a year.  Maybe you’ve done that yourself.  Maybe we should take that on next year here at Southport.  What do you think?  Well, a lot of folks got real excited and signed a covenant to do that together with me.  But there was one individual who came to me and said, “I did that already.  Read it through cover to cover, and then set it aside and haven’t needed to pick it up again since.” 

You’re smiling at that, I hope.  How naïve, you might think, to assume you knew everything that Bible had to tell you in one reading.   You may have studied it before, you may large chunks of it by heart, you may have read – maybe even preached – your favorite passages again and again.  You may believe you know it backwards and forwards.  And besides, we know the Bible doesn’t change. Right?  So maybe this person had a point.


Well, the Bible hasn’t changed, but we have.  The world has.  Life has changed.  We need fresh interpretations, deeper insights.  We need to study the Bible in the light of what we have learned about our history, about our prejudice, about our oppressive systems and technological developments.  We need to hear these old words in new understandings.  So we go back again and again. 

Which is why I’m here again.  Preaching has changed from when I first learned it in seminary.  And I have changed.  So have you.  We need to continue to learn and grow, to be inspired and transformed.  As long as I keep preaching, I hope I can keep learning about how to preach.  And I also hope that as long as you follow Jesus, you continue to learn how to follow Him more.

I was pleased to see so many check the box in worship saying you were interested in a summer Bible study.  Watch for an announcement soon after I get back for dates and times.  I can’t wait to keep learning with you.

Shalom,
Pastor Derek

Oh, and PS.  It’s not just my anniversary as your pastor.  This May was my anniversary as the husband of La Donna Riddle Weber.  Happy 38th Anniversary, sweetheart.  And believe me, I have lots to learn on how to do that job better.  Just ask her!




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