Our pastor of 13 years retired last spring.  Pastor Boon has been one of the biggest influences on my spiritual life.  He had served all of his career as a foreign missionary before he and his family moved to Bridgton, Maine to finish his career in our town.  His retirement left a huge hole in our congregation and our community of Bridgton.

It is a huge process to hire a pastor.  Our denomination, the Christian Missionary Alliance, doesn't just provide the next pastor as is done in some denominations.  The CMA headquarters sends us prospective candidates, but the local congregation makes the final choice, assuming the candidate accepts the offer.  Consequently, we have been without a senior pastor since June.

We do have Debbie, our assistant pastor, but her primary roles have involved more of the 'face to face' ministry: counseling, teaching small groups, working with kids, youth, families, mentoring young women, etc.  She would be the first to say that preaching and administration are not her strengths nor her preferences.  Don't get me wrong, she has done a lot of the preaching since Pastor Boon retired, but she already has a full plate with the jobs she has been doing from the start.

When she needs a break, and when I have the time, I have been taking a few turns in the pulpit.  It's actually been a lot of fun.  more often than not, I've thrown in a Supreme Court Jesters routine or two, and I have learned how to create power point so that I have visuals to accompany me when I speak.  My topics have included a two week series on the book of Job, the concept of being a disciple rather than just a believer, the start of Advent, grace (always a good one), reporting back on our trip to Washington DC, and hypocrisy.  The feedback from the congregation has been good, yet also constructive.

I'm 'off' from preaching for the next month or so, but I look forward to getting my next shot.  OK, so I'm not going to quit my day job, and I want a new senior pastor as much as anyone, but until then, why not?