Tawas Area Presbyterian Church "A Church with a Heart, in the Heart of the Bay." Tawas Area Presbyterian Church "A Church with a Heart, in the Heart of the Bay."
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June 2008 - Newsletter - Page 2

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When you read this I will be on a ‘mini-sabbatical' for 6 weeks. After a seven year stay at one church, a sabbatical is encouraged, so that a preacher can get back to the ‘well' and get a deep spiritual drink, and then the congregation can benefit from the ‘water of life'that refreshes his calling.

I've accumulated some study leave time over the years, and need to use it or lose it. Therefore the Session, granted my request. When I moved into the study, back in the fall of 2000, pastor Ken Tousley remarked that all the boxes stacked in my office were full of sermons. That was partially true, but now those boxes are empty. Getting more ‘sermon fodder' is part of what I'll be doing on this sabbatical.

Speaking of sermons....after 37 years of preaching I have a collection of unforgettable 'sermon remarks', that I've received when greeting worshipers as they left the service. One elderly woman said: "That was a fine sermon, and so loud too!" In a hallway just before the service, I overheard a couple talking: "Who is this Rick Vogeley who's preaching today?" His wife said: "I don't know, but there's still time to get to the Methodist church." So they left. A fellow preacher told me he had a little old lady tell him: "I'd like a copy of your sermon." He was thrilled until she said: "because I didn't understand it at all!"

After preaching one of my first sermons, just out of seminary, one of the elders put his hand on my shoulder and said: "Not a bad sermon for a green-horn. But I'll tell you something. You were through about five minutes before you stopped." A very outspoken lady said to me: "I want you to meet my Methodist friend, because I told her, we Presbyterians believe in an educated ministry. A Presbyterian minister may be a fool, but he's an educated fool"

Bruce Thielemann, fellow Presbyterian preacher, had a quote I deem appropriate for this article: "There is no special honor in being called to the preaching ministry. There is only special pain. The pulpit calls those anointed to it, as the sea calls its sailors; and like the sea, it batters and bruises, and does not rest. To preach, to really preach, is to die naked a little at a time, and to know each time you do it, that you must do it again. Surely the preacher's greatest sin is to put people to sleep with the greatest story ever told."

We all need to remember, whatever our calling, that we are not called to save the world. Our calling, as Christians, is not to be successful, but to be faithful. The results we must leave to God, for it is the Lord, not us, who is the Savior of the world. We need to examine our lives, not with the question, "How am I doing?" but rather with the question, "Am I being faithful?"

See you in church, (but not until the last Sunday in June).

Faithfully yours,

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