Three posts in a reasonable time frame? You should pause for a moment and collect yourselves, for this must surely be an omen. Probably not, but best to take a moment anyway. I’ll wait.
*Insert appropriate waiting time here*
Hello! Now that you’re back, I suppose it’s time to make good on my promise from my previous post to fill you all in on our lives over this past year. Instead of laying out this post chronologically like I did with the 2022 in review, I’m going to use helpful headings. Sadly, unless I change my mind by the end of writing this post, I do not have any photos to share this year.
The Home Front
It’s best to begin with the home front. There have, and have not been, many developments in our home life this past year. The year started out with my visiting cardiologist’s due to my heart event last December. As I mentioned in the 2022 in review post, praise the Lord, nothing serious seems to have occurred and I was later given a clean bill of health.
Vacation wise, Sharon and I celebrated our 12th anniversary in Gatlinburg this year. We had a fairly restful trip, but we realized that if we continue to vacation in East Tennessee that we’ll need to find other places to visit. Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are simply too busy, too crowded, and too moonshiney. We’re more slow paced in our vacationing and neither city lends itself to anything remotely relaxing. Regardless, we had a great time.
However, sad news followed us as we learned that one of our senior dogs (Teyla) now has diabetes. She’s fine, but now she receives 2 shots a day and has since developed cataracts and is fully blind. Sharon and I are keeping her as pampered and happy as possible as she no doubt enters into her final year. Our other dog, Bombadil, on the other hand has become more clingy because of Teyla’s condition, but he’s also been helpful with her on occasion, especially as her sight began to go. He’s in good health himself other than a bit of arthritis due to his advanced age as well. He still plays, barks, growls, and eats just fine. It’s a good life for a dog.
My garden went nowhere this year as nothing wanted to fruit. I imagine it’s a soil condition, which I am working on rectifying. The biggest news might be that I finally made the plunge and rid myself of a smartphone! I have been using The Light Phone since April and it has been a great move for me. While I still use an iPad for sermon notes and other “smart” accessories, not having a smartphone in my pocket has been a great transition. One that I encourage everyone to try if you can. I fully plan to implement more digitally minimalist policies into my life in 2024.
Church Life
Church has been plugging along well if I do say so myself! We have seen an increase in students from the local university which is always a blessing, and we have also recently celebrated a wedding of a great young couple (because I’m old enough now to say “young couple” and not be included in that generation). The increase in “young people” also means that my opportunities for discipling have increased, which is always a good thing! In fact, we’ve had one young college student come on in a pastoral apprenticeship capacity and things are going well there.
Our teaching podcast has seen a growth in listeners, which is encouraging. Each new episode is automatically uploaded to the home page here at the thesouthtownpastor.com, but you can also find it here. This podcast is simply a recording of our Sunday School and sermon audio. If you decide to give us a listen, we’d love a review and feedback from you.
Other church related things include new flooring due to a burst pipe last Christmas Eve, a new reading room and library at the church, and a new prayer chapel. I will upload photos of these as soon as I am able (but due to my lack of a smartphone as mentioned above, that might be awhile – but you can always come and join us for worship and see for yourself!).
I also spent the entirety of Ordinary Time preaching through the Gospel of Matthew. This was a great look at this gospel and it opened my eyes to a few neat things, particularly as they relate to the Prophet Isaiah (which has been taught during our Sunday School hour this past year as well). These two works are very closely connected and I am embarking on a comparative study of these two works starting in 2024.
Otherwise, we are moving along as we are supposed to – discipling, teaching, preaching, and praying – while waiting on the return of the Lord. By the time this posts, Advent will be over, we’ll be in the season of Christmas and we’ll be gearing up for the Feast of (and season of) Epiphany.
Teaching
As I mentioned above, I have spent quite a few months this past year teaching through the Gospel of Matthew. I have also done some regular teaching at our Wednesday evening study on the Biblical interpretation method known as the Quadriga. I go into detail on this method, its history, and its use in my New Testament Reading Guide, but you can also read about it here. This was a really good and helpful tool I thought. We spent about a month making our way through the prophet Obadiah, reading it through every week and applying one of the four methods of interpretation to it. Then, as my fellow elder (Craig) has been teaching through Genesis this year on Wednesday evenings, we’ve randomly paused to revisit the Quadriga and apply it to the chapters that we had studied.
But, that’s not the teaching that I’m referring to under this heading. In fact, I should have probably put that entire paragraph under the “Church” heading. Oh well. No, the teaching I’m talking about is the new teaching position I began back in August of 2023. I am now officially a High/Jr High English teacher. My first semester seemed to go well, though I am still learning the ropes. Overall it has been a great experience and I’m looking forward to the future in this area.
Personal Projects
Finally, a few words about personal projects. There is the aforementioned New Testament Reading Guide that took up the better part of my fall “project” time (when I wasn’t sermon prepping, discipling, and lesson planning).
Craig (friend and fellow elder) and I did record a couple of episodes of a new book podcast. However, with the kickoff of the above mentioned teaching position, my attention was understandably diverted. So, it has not officially launched even though we had hoped to launch it this past fall. The idea behind the podcast is similar to the monthly retreats that I lead at my church. We consider works of fiction and discuss the spiritual symbolism and themes contained within them (regardless if the author was/is a believer or not). It’s a lot of fun! I’m hoping we’ll be able to properly launch this next calendar year.
Other projects are crossovers from other headings, such as the Mathew/Isaiah study, refining my NT reading guide, the pastor apprenticeship, etc.
And with that, I believe I have properly given you a look at our 2023. There are many other things that were not mentioned (like my wife’s trips for concerts with her sister or to Disney with her mom and sister), events of a personal and private nature, and such. But overall it was a decent year and we’re looking forward to 2024. So, allow me to wish you all a very Happy New Year! May the Lord bless you in the year to come.
Peace of Christ to you,
Nick
The SouthTown Pastor 