Double Preaching

Last week, I preached twice on the same day. In the morning, I was at a small church I served several times last year in Bussey, Iowa. For evening, I served a larger local church that had a small crowd due to the holiday.

When I was approached by these congregations, I was hesitant to agree to do both as I wondered if my voice could handle it and time commitment. However, I concluded I could use the same message at both churches and, from past experience, I only needed to handle the sermon. Therefore, I agreed to serve both congregations on July 3.

As I finished final preparations, I coordinated with the secretary of the local church on my material and presentation. When she gave me the bulletin preview the Monday before I preached, I noticed several blank spots. Asking about them, I then learned I was expected to do the entire service. I was thankful I had a few days to prepare, but wasn't sure if I could do it all. I adjusted my PowerPoint to include the welcome message and further notes and prayed it would go well. Emails late Saturday evening added further changes, but nothing too major.

Sunday morning, I woke up with a dry, slightly sore throat. I tried to stay as quiet as possible to save my voice, but soon sat in the now familiar congregation with a relaxed style of worship. I presented the message, "One Nation Under God," and thought it went pretty well. After lunch, I didn't do much more than watch YouTube and not use my voice.

After a few hours at home, I was again up in my chair and off to my next church. My throat was still sore, but thankfully not bad. As I sat waiting for the pianist to finish the prelude for me to start, I noticed the welcome message I provided wasn't on the screen. As I introduced myself after more than two years away, I still noticed my opening verses were not on the screen. Thankfully, I had written them in my notes, but I didn't have all my text recorded and needed the screen for my message.

I progressed through the first songs while wondering in my head how to manage if my passages didn't appear. Thankfully, as I started the message for the second time that day, the text came up on the screen. I briefly looked at my watch as I began preaching, and when I looked again another 20 minutes had elapsed. I ended up going about 13 minutes longer than the planned hour-long service, but nobody said anything to me.

All week, my throat has been a little sore in the morning, but has thankfully improved. I'm not sure I will agree to do two services in a day again, but it did okay. Currently, I only have one more church scheduled this month and one in late August. I'm thankful to get to be used for God's glory, but need to ease into doing more.