contact Pastor, P Akhimien
On: promiseland5@hotmail.com
or call +2348034510128

I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while, and I appreciate the chance to read a few sermons (of others) on my day off. There’s something energizing about reading blogs and sermons of those preparing for the pastorate, and of those who have been preaching for 50 years. Both tend to find different things in the text, and put things together in a different way. It’s refreshing in so many ways.

I especially like the blog of a semi-retired Methodist pastor who isn’t one bit afraid to say it like he sees it. He’s only posted six sermons so far this year, with the last one being at Pentecost. But he is so different than me, that I find fresh air in what he writes and how he goes about things. http://questingparson.typepad.com/questing_parson/

I don’t post my sermons, which are also quite contextual, so I certainly wouldn’t find fault if you didn’t post them online. I am seriously contemplating the posting of the audio though (currently not recorded). Without the text, search engines won’t come up with the words and references. And those who are really serious will still be able to listen.

I’ll admit that I prefer to read sermons, as a person can read a sermon much faster than it is generally spoken. I generally don’t read other sermons on the same topics/texts as preparation or ideas. I just read a few sermons for my own heart and mind (either on Sunday evening or Monday).

I like to follow a few seminarians, as it keeps me in touch with what is being taught and how they are navigating through the challenges. No offense intended, but I’ll probably remove your blog from my reader fairly soon. It’s been good to read a few of your sermons, and to get a sense that you are settling down into this first call in a reasonably good place and fashion.

I don’t think my sermons are ever good enough for someone to steal (you’d have to be really desperate), but I don’t see how “stealing” (using without attribution an entire sermon) hurts me. It hurts the thief and his/her congregation. If someone finds my words so useful that they want to share them with his/her congregation, I think I’m honored.

The other thing about sermons is that they are a window into the preacher’s soul. They expose more about us than we ever know. And so, I see privacy as a reason not to post.

Our congregation is moving to reviving our website. I’ll probably post there when we do. At this point, my blog is not known among my congregation.

I think you already mentioned one good reason: members of your own congregation who miss a Sunday can then access it.

But to that I would add: I appreciated reading your sermon, not just because it was a good sermon (which it was), but because your posting helps, in a small way, work to correct one of the persistent struggles in our denomination.

One of my deepest convictions since our last General Assembly has been to say to folks on the left and the right, “These are not your enemies, nor are they heretics/apostate/etc… these are brothers and sisters in Christ (with whom you certainly may disagree).”

Seeing how one another engages scripture and interacts with the life of a congregation grounds our knowledge of each other in a much more realistic and day-to-day reality. And that is helpful!

On a practical note, I decided to create an identical-looking, but separate blog just for the sermons (and include audio)… just so folks who wanted to subscribe to one or the other (blog or sermons) could do so. Both have links to each other… see here and here:

sermon blog
pastor blog

In God’s grace,

Robert