Drouin

February 1, 2009

Alison, Duncan and I stayed overnight in a wee motel in Warragul, just 5 kms past Drouin, so that we might be fresh and un-hurried for worship on Sunday morning.

There are normally 2 services of worship each Sunday morning, a contemporary / family service at 9am and a more traditional service at 10:30am, but for the Moderator's visit they joined together at 10:30, although I was told by some of the older members later that the format of the service was almost entirely from the earlier, contemporary style. They weren't complaining, not at all, just letting me know.

In fact, I heard no complaints all day. To use an old Presbyterian phrase, 'the congregation is in good heart'. And I would add that they are also in good number (were there perhaps 180 people there?) and in extremely good voice - the singing was a delight.

Their minister Mark Smith led the morning service, with a couple of elders doing different parts, and I preached on the first chapter of Daniel. It was interesting that another visiting preacher just a couple of weeks earlier had also preached on that same chapter, and I must confess that I was inspired to preach on it by hearing a visiting preacher at Surrey Hills Church when I had visited them during my own holiday, also just a couple of weeks earlier. Perhaps God is saying something to us, when so many are led to expound the same part of Scripture so close together!

There was a lunch after church and I was deeply impressed by the number of young people around, boys and girls of all ages, as well as young men and young women. It was good to share in fellowship and to hear about ambitions for ministry.

All of this was extremely encouraging - although I might make a general observation that when young people feel called into ministry these days it is rarely into the formal structures of the established church, i.e. into a parish. It is more often into the specialist ministries of one or other of an ever increasing number of para-church organisations. This is not a criticism of either the young people or the para-church agencies, but I do wonder what the church is doing, when we cannot harness and deploy that youthful, evangelical zeal.

 After lunch, Alison and I spent a number of hours in conversation with Mark and Danielle, which was an absolute delight, Duncan had a ball playing with Jarrod (who is the same age), Nathan and Mikayla, especially on the Wii, and we shared a meal together before heading back into church for the evening service at 7pm.

This time Mark preached and I was just a visitor. I guess it will probably be rare on these visits for me to get the chance to hear the local minister preach, so I enjoyed this opportunity. We were treated to a challenging sermon on prayer, from Psalm 17.