What are you supposed to feel when your church says to you 'The minister is double-booked on Sunday week, can you fill in?'. Well, perhaps it's time to put my preaching career on the line (wow -two whole sermons so far to a church that hasn't invited me back!!). This could be churchicide.
In the end, what is there to fear? They may laugh at you (they do that already); they may argue with what you have to say (they do that already); they may never speak to you afterwards (they do that.....).
In these circumstances, this is my strategy - pray for the right message and trust the rest to God. If he is the master of his word (the Bible) then I can seek his guidance on where to go and what to explain. As long as I stick to what the text really says then I can't go wrong (but I think I'd better leave out the joke about the carrot!).
This is such a spiritual boost after the non-spiritual trade show - perhaps God is listening after all. 'Guide me oh! thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am meek but thou art mighty....' Aren't old hymns sometimes so much more helpful than 'we adore you, we love you, we adore you, we love you, we adore you, we love you - we love you foever adoring God' which seems a little unrealistic as well as a tautology when you unpack the latin root of 'love'.
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