Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward MageeNews.com a small commission – at no extra cost to you.
Spring is here and Summer will soon be on the way. Fresh flowers, new leaves on the trees and church activities.
As a teenager, there was no bigger church activity than Youth Sunday. This was the one Sunday of the year when the young people of the church got to lead the congregation in the morning worship service.
The youth took care of everything from the music and passing the offering plate to the delivery of the morning message.
I recall Youth Sunday 1980 at Goodwater Baptist Church in Magee. Yours truly here, was nominated to be the Youth Pastor for the day.
Of course this meant making the announcements at the beginning of the service, giving the Pastoral prayer before the offering plate was passed and last but not least giving the morning message!
I didn’t know where to start. I had a week to prepare. I can do this I told myself. After all, I had been in Sunday school classes since I was a child. I had grown up listening to Billy Graham, Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart. How hard of a task could it be?
So I started out the week with pen and paper, determined to write the perfect sermon. I would try to write it down but the words just wouldn’t come.
I must have gone through an entire legal pad of paper in the first two days but nothing was quite right.
Finally by Wednesday , I decided to call my pastor, Rev. Martin Hayden at Goodwater. He told me to come and see him at the church office. Bro. Hayden told me that every sermon needed a theme and three basic points leading up to that theme.
After much prayer , I decided on a theme. My theme would be “Finding JOY in the Christian Life ” and my points to achieving this would be simple; Put JESUS first in your life . Put OTHERS second and put YOURSELF third. JOY !!!
So the big day came , Youth Sunday. I just knew I was ready. I was thinking they better be having dinner on the grounds because these folks are gonna be hungry by the time they get out of here.
Well, I think at best my sermon lasted about 15 minutes. When I was done, Ms Billie Berry fired up the church organ to “Victory In Jesus ” and “To God Be The Glory ” just as she did each Sunday and the church was invited to lunch in the fellowship hall.
An hour later , everyone’s stomach was full and their hearts were blessed. It’s a church memory that I’ll never forget!!!
You may reach Don for comment at ddwalker88@comcast.net
