This last Sunday I had the opportunity to preach my first sermon at a real church! I was very honored that they asked me after only being at the church for the last 5 months. All in all I think it went pretty well. I received some encouraging feedback anyway. If you want to check it out here's the link:

http://www.sermoncloud.com/realitychurch/love-is-good

I have a tendancy to talk really fast when I speak in front of large groups. I didn't realize how fast it was till I listened to the sermon. I think when I get nervous somewhere in my brain I think that if I just talk faster it will be more interesting. Really it just doesn't give enough time to think about each point. This will be the biggest thing I'll work on next time delivery wise.

This was the longest speech I've ever done (32:00). With shorter speeches it's easier to keep everything I want to say fresh in my mind; my notes are there just in case. This time I had to really rely on them. I ended up rewriting them after the first service from the sage advice of one of our elders.

I've also never done the same speech twice in one day before. I didn't think about this much beforehand but it was a little bit challenging to get into it the second time. I forgot to say some things in both services but I was more prepaired for the second so I think that one turned out better all in all.

It was a really good experience for me if for no other reason than that I got to think about love all the time for two weeks and telling the whole church what I'm working with regards to that will help motivate me to live it out better.