OK. Preaching this morning

I was hesitating between Ephesians 4 : 1 - 15 and Psalm 139. In the end I decided to preach on Psalm 139 because Ephesians 4 touches too much on church policy (who does what to whom and when), and I don't want to go setting agendas or anything like that while the pastor is away - or even to give the appearance of so doing!

I am about to listen to my MP3 of Psalm 139. I will also read a bit from John, the call of Nathanael. I'll listen to the MP3 really to iron out pronunciation and to ensure liaisons are in the right place.

I was talking to people in the English class yesterday about the moment when you move from thinking about rules to when your ear tells you what's right (for example for the sound of walked, spotted, answered). My ear is getting there. Slowly.

However, I was told recently that my pronunciation is getting worse.

So I have increased the amount of French radio and TV I listen to to try and help that. And this morning I will try to take my time and enunciate everything very clearly.

Ah well. I've done all I can.

I have this lurking fear that I have learned too quickly and started ministry too soon, that if I had spent longer agonising over everything then all would be better. But that's me. I am always like that. And in the end you do what God gives you to do, and you go through the doors he opens for you, and you trust him to work out his plan.

Psalm 139, really!

Comments

Alan said…
Generally the service went OK. We were really enoucraged by some of the folk who were there. Thanks for praying !
10:30 pm
Alan said…
One slightly strange thing - I have caught myself doing liaisons and then either pausing or stopping before the word I am liaising with. I have noticed other people doing this, though it's bad form really. Maybe you catch the things you notice? Anyway, I'll have to make sure I stamp it out!
9:02 am
Alan said…
Actually, in the light of Tuesday morning, I am ever so picky with myself, fussing over my liaisons like this. They are not THAT important! Another bout of perfectionism, I'm afraid, which is the worst sin in Christian ministry.
12:08 pm
Alan said…
OK. Bit of feedback. The accent was much clearer. Phew...
8:31 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor
Read more

A brief sortie to North Wales

 Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful.  We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I
Read more