Apprentice

Thanks to my fondness for my own bed this meeting has been a long time coming so Peter and I had a lot to catch up on. So here’s what we discussed:

Spiritual and Personal Development

Since our last meeting I’ve cleared away my old computer, which was just sitting in my room taking up space. I now use the desk as a quiet area to work, study and pray. Having my own little sanctuary in this house has made a big difference. I’ve also switched to a different prayer pattern and I’ve just started using a notebook to help with my prayers. We also discussed the reading I was doing to help in this area, which I should probably get around to reviewing sometime.

Relationships

I’ll keep this one private for the time being.

Ministry Involvement

I’ve bought the book “Choosing to Preach” by Kenton C. Anderson to help learn some preaching and sermon writing techniques. I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. I’ve got a lot of reading to get through at the moment.

Peter and I decided that it would be a good idea to have a statement of faith page for the website. I’ll have to plan this one out carefully. I don’t want the page to be some kind of catechism, it needs to be easy to understand and broad enough to welcome all Christians to come and worship with us, not just those who would describe themselves as Presbyterians - there aren’t many Presbyterians in Cahir and we do want to love and serve the community.

Leadership

I’ve been assigned a passage to lead a Bible study on during our church’s series on Daniel. The passage I’ve been given is Daniel 9:1-19 - Daniel’s prayer. I’m excited about the passage and about leading our church Bible study.

Managing my time better - exercising self-control - is one of my goals in the area of leadership, because self-control is one of the key qualities of a leader. My new work area is helping me to manage my time a lot better, the new whiteboard is helping to. I’ve also bought a book for this area called “Ordering your Private World” by Gordon MacDonald, I haven’t read much of it yet so it’s too early to tell if it’s actually any good.

Other Stuff

Peter and I also discussed how I was getting on in work - I hate it there - and college - I love it there. At the moment I’m concerned about being able to afford to go full-time and continue my studies next year. We also discussed what I was going to do after college. It might sound very “worldly” of me but I do want to get a job out of all this study. I have to be able to support myself, right now I cannot and I’m investing my future in this course. Of course the best thing I’m getting out of this course is a deepening of my relationship with God and the development of skills that I can use to help others to get to know God too. But I have to eat.