Worship at NTC

Here they are, hot off the presses! The latest images from NTC. This time, we're showing how we worship in the field.

Here's about half of my congregation. We had 7 this week, which is seven times more than we had last week. Oooo...that's spooky Biblical! People from many different faiths and traditions but we came together to worship our Savior, Jesus Christ. I still believe that I'm a better guitar player than my wife gives me credit for. However, I'll concede to her that I'm really not good enough to play solo in public yet. But, the other option is to sing accapella, which wouldn't have been a good idea today. I started to lose my voice while singing and had to croak my way through my sermon. Besides, the only way to get better is to practice, right?

Next we have me looking at my notes. I'd like to say that I had a last-minute inspiration, but it's better to say that I'm a procrastinator. Therefore, I didn't have my sermon as in-mind as I would have liked. But, one thing I learned on vicarage is that the best to have a good sermon is to believe that this current sermon is a good sermon. Confidence in what your saying sometimes is better than what you wrote.

Finally, we have communion in the field. The way we admister the sacrament is through intinction, which is just a fancy theology word for "dipping." In order to accomodate many different faith traditions, I have a chalice that I have half wine and half grape juice. I'm very clear about what I believe about communion and put it on the conscience of the individual believer as to whether they will come and receive the body and blood. Yes, yes, yes, I know that not LC--MS kosher, but it's one of the compromises I choose to make to be an Army Chaplain.