Sermon Planning in Southern Ohio

I just got back from my annual three day sermon planning retreat to help me plan out sermons and worship themes for the upcoming year. A friend of mine who is also a United Methodist pastor joins me on this retreat and we help each other discern God's voice on what sermon topics would be most helpful to our respective congregations.

Here are some of the highlights from the retreat.

• While I wasn't able to incorporate everyone's ideas on which sermon topics to cover in 2010, I feel really good about the topics that have been chosen and how these topics will help our church to be faithful in our mission of making disciples for the transformation of the world. A big thanks to everyone who offered me sermon topic ideas!
• Since I'm still in the process of finalizing the sermon schedule, I won't include specifics, but there will be sermon series that will help our church to 1) attract seekers to our worship services 2) help us dig deeper into the bible 3) equip us to be involved in ministry and service 4) challenge us to new ministry initiatives 5) help us to take better care of ourselves; physically, mentally, and spiritually, and 6) enable us to celebrate the church seasons in new and fresh ways.
• My friend and I stayed at a beautiful home on the shores of Lake Wynoka in southern Ohio. (See picture above.) In addition to taking in the beautiful wooded area nearby, we also enjoyed a boat ride that took us around the lake.
• As always, our retreat included morning and evening devotions from the United Methodist Hymnal and we concluded our retreat by celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Communion outdoors.
• During our free time, we drove about 45 minutes to see the location of the oldest Methodist Episcopal Church in the Northwest Ohio Territory, Moore's Chapel United Methodist Church. We were able to take a tour of the small church building (not the original building.) We both were reminded that we are part of a rich history of those early Methodists traveling far and wide in order to "spread scriptural holiness throughout the land."
• 2010 is going to be a great year for us (including these two pastors!) to become more fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ through inspiring sermons and passionate worship.