What am I up to in December?

For the past month or so, I have been focused on trying to complete the courses I have already taken. For my leadership class my final project involved writing up my Dream Church (as written about in an earlier post). My final anthrolopolgy paper involved how to transition the church I was just at or will be going to into a missional church. Missional church is a church that is focused more on being the people of God to those who do not know it rather than just perpetuating a church focused on being good for the institution. I did my paper last week on transitioning the traditional UMC church in my area to a more missional model of ministry.

My final class for the semester was a preaching class with Dr. Kalas. I preached last week a sermon for a special occasion. The sermon I wrote and preached will be most likely my first sermon at my new church, wherever that will be. I thought I would kill two birds with one stone, since the beginning of a new appointment at a church is a hectic time and so I could receive the critique of my colleagues.

I have a little more than two weeks before we leave for Christmas break in Florida. I intend to spend this week reading books on Biblical Interpretation for my class in January. THe following week I hope to complete chapter one of my dissertation on small reproducable discipleship groups. Looking ahead, this month will be the slowest month till the end of March and I want to utilize the time as best I can.

That is what my days look like ahead. I am still enjoying every moment of it but the work coming ahead is daunting. Just taking it a day at a time. I am taking Kate out for lunch today just to enjoy each other. Take care.