What, 40 Years?

I don't know about you but when they kept talking about 40 years as the time that has passed since that first moon walk I went, "naw." You mean it was 40 years ago that my new wife and I watched that giant step for mankind from the living room of a parsonage in Eastern North Carolina?

It was my first church, my first wife, I had just preached my first sermon, and a spaceman took that first step. I found myself serving 3 small churches. Now you need to understand that I had not yet been to seminary. This was a summer Duke Endowment "field work" placement. They should have sent a "veteran" seminarian who knew something about ministry.

Whoever made the "assignment" did not do their homework. When my new bride and I pulled into the driveway that first Saturday the minister of the three churches was packing his car. Yes, packing his car. He told me "He could not handle it anymore and that he was taking the summer off." He then drove off.

Betsy and I looked at each other and said something like, "Naw." It's a long story but the short of it is that those dear tobacco growing people adopted this young naive not yet trained preacher and his sweet little bride.

I guess you can say that is where I "learned how to preach by preaching." By the way I've never taken a preaching class. That's another long story. ( I can play a pretty good game of tennis and I've never taken a tennis lesson...so...)

So it's been 40 years since that first "giant step" but I remember that it was a time where I was taking "baby steps" that would lead down a path where I now look up at the moon on a clear night from Davidson. 40 years....naw...
jody jseymour@davidsonumc.org