It's not very often I am invited to do a guest preach, because most Sundays I am either preaching at the church I serve or, nowadays, am teaching at or facilitating a college residential event.  So it was really lovely to be able to accept an invitation from a church I last preached at almost exactly 22 years ago! (Strictly it's 21 years and 51 weeks but what's a week between friends?!).  Back then, I was an as yet 'unsettled' ministerial student, wondering what lay ahead... now I am entrusted with the care of ministers in training in a very different world.

For most of my ministerial life, the services I've led have been audio-recorded, and for fourteen years, they were shared effectively as a podcast; and for nearly four of those years, I led worship either on Zoom or in a hybrid format. For the last two years, no recording has taken place, there is no record of what I said (except in the scripts on my laptop).  So it was a bit of a change today to be streamed live on YouTube and not only to listen, but also to watch back this evening.

Listening back, I reckon it was an okay sermon, in a decent, traditional kind of service.  The hymns - all bar one chosen by the church musicians, one by me - all fitted the theme and were sung well by the congregation.

I always appreciated being able to listen back to my services, to reflect on what I had said, to hear what others heard, so it was a blessing to do so today.

Should you wish to listen/watch, you can click on the embedded video  - but there is no expectation whatsoever that you will.   

Every now and again - and very infrequently - I am invited as a 'visiting preacher'.  It can't happen that often because when I was a full time minister I preached at least 43 Sundays a year, and as part time I preach 20-ish and teach anything up to another 12.

It was nice to be invited to preach at a church I visited twice, possibly three times, as a student... and scary to realise just how long ago that was!

Tomorrow it will be just seven days shy of twenty-two years since I last preached at this church - and my goodness what a lot has happened on those years!

In 2022, I was invited to preach on Elijah passing on his mantle to Elisha - it was a half decent sermon, with some good ideas.  Tomorrow I've been invited to preach on the end of Hebrews 11 into Hebrews 12 - it's an okay sermon, with some, imo, appropriate questions.

I find it fascinating looking back at my old sermons, often quite impressed by them ('I was clever once'), often noting how similar they are to those I write now, even if language, style and details of theology have changed, and often wondering what someone might draw out as my 'one sermon' (according to some people, we all only have one!).

So, tomorrow I head off to Manchester, to talk about one of my favourite passages of scripture, saying pretty much the same things I have been saying for quarter of a century, and trusting that somehow, God is in it all.