Presidential Debates
As I sat down to watch the debates last night, and saw the eager facebook and twitter posts from friends hosting parties and debate drinking games, I remembered what it was like when election season was all about the game of the election to me. I still have friends who recognize that their lives will […]
A Loved Child of God
https://www.nathanwillard.com/sermon_vid/ALovedChildOfGod_091212.mp3 Preached at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Sylva, NC Sermon Text: James 3:13-4:3 No text again today, though I have (scratchy) audio to post later. Perhaps the most important aspect of Christian life, for me, is finding people who are trapped in a narrative of hopelessness, and bring them back from that […]
Here is the Steeple
Preached July 22 at the Congregational Church in Iowa City. Again, no final sermon text. Speaking somewhat extemporaneously seems to be working, I finally felt comfortable and in my groove again for the first time since, really, Beverly. But this week's sermon had to do with the temple of Solomon, and the disconnect between the […]
Hope for the future
Working on my sermon for tomorrow's services at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, I wonder how folks who consistently preach without notes deal with the waiting period between sermon prep and sermon delivery. When I was writing manuscripts, I would stop when I hit the right note and then do another two rounds of […]
On the end of a ministry
This time last year, I was anxiously awaiting the final say on whether I'd be hired as a campus minister (I wasn't really sure until late July, and even then there was some ambiguity as to the length of my service). Anxious partly because this seemed like the only ministry work that I seemed likely […]