Thanks to Gavin for collecting Methoblogger’s personal top 5 posts of the year. Below are mine, humbly submitted.
1. The Inevitable Emergence of Young Church Leaders – This post was my own reflection on the news from various sources, religious and secular that the UMC (and the broader Church as well) is facing a critical absence of younger clergy leadership.
2. Preaching Study Posts for Psalm 23 (one, two, three), and Luke 2:41-52 (sermon here, w/links to 2 study posts) – The first preaching study post for Psalm 23 was my first attempt to turn around a common practice of offering up finished sermons via blogs for folks to read, learn from and interact with. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the value in that, but I wanted to experiment with laying open the study process and make sermon prep and Scripture engagment a little more of a communal exercise. As it happens, I think that the Luke sermon (for Mother’s Day 06) is the only time I’ve included a sermon after I’ve preached it. I didn’t do as many of these this fall as I had planned on doing but aim to get back to them in the spring. I enjoy the interaction and am thinking about specifically inviting the congregation to get online and participate if interested…
3. Two Cemeteries – A personal reflective piece after a family reunion side trip to a pair of cemeteries in rural East Texas that are connected with my Dad’s side of the family.
4. Comparing Religions from a Christian Perspective part one and two – I was invited to teach an adult Sunday School class at my church for two sessions on this topic. I enjoyed the opportunity to frame my thoughts on the matter and had a great experience both in speaking and discussing with the class, and in the conversation on the blog.
5. Child’s Theology – This post shared a couple of theological insights from one of my new friends at my new church who’s about 4 or 5 years old. He’s smart, funny, and a pretty cute guy too–ladies, are you listening?
Guy M Williams 