Hey, look. I still blog here. Sometimes. It's been busy lately, so this is one of those posts where I post about a bunch of stuff.

Sunday School

I got to church early enough to practice my guitar with the band a few minutes before we had to get off stage because a service was about to start. During the Sunday School hour, I decided to visit my old SS class and catch up with some of the folks over there. I miss them. Today's lesson centered around Deuteronmy 6 (with emphasis on Shema Yisrael). The teacher did a great job, some of the discussion made me thing about some things, and I really enjoyed being with that class again. I'm not going to be a regular visitor -- the folks in class still looked to me for answers when there's a part of the discussion that stumped the teach. If I were a regular, I'd just end up being the "shadow teacher," and that's not fair to either me or the current teacher. I'm probably stop back in for a visit in another few months.

One thing interesting happened. One of the ladies in class pulled me aside and told me that she was in the process of planning her mother's funeral. (Her mother is in fine health for an 80+ year old and the need for a funeral is not expected soon, but it's not a bad idea to plan for these things.) As part of the planning, the daughter wanted to know if I'd participate in it. I was honored, told her so, and agreed. I'm going to try to get in touch with the daughter again soon and find out more of what she had in mind. But, wow. I'm really humbled and honored.

Church

Today's service at The Mount went really well. The band was tight. We had worked up a pretty high-energy set of songs for today's service and it worked out nicely. I especially enjoyed getting to debut my wah-wah pedal in one of the songs. Next week, I'm going to switch with the bass player -- he'll cover guitar and I'll cover bass. We're both really excited about doing that.

We're going to be getting some better lighting for the room soon, too. The current lighting is very harsh and the addition of some theatrical lighting should help a lot.

Today's sermon dealt with making the most of every opportunity, and it was a good message. Our pastor had been away for a couple of weeks and it is nice to have him back.

After church, yarbiedoll and I joined a couple of other worship leaders from The Mount and picked up school supplies for over 20 children that are attending The Mount and would have trouble getting the money together to get supplies on their own. The Mount seems to have (semi-)accidentally started to reach out to a local population of international Christians. Many of these people are refugees from Rwanda and other African countries. It's not the typical demographic that has been at our church throughout the years, and it's really exciting seeing that they are finding a worship home in the service that we're working to provide. It's also great that the church is not just stopping at inviting them to the service, but is supporting them in other ways. It felt really good to be part of getting those supplies together.

Baseball

After getting back home from school supply shopping, I had just a few minutes to get some things together before heading downtown to the ballpark. One of my coworkers was taking his 2-year old son to his first baseball game, and I was happy to have an excuse to go to the ballpark.

I got to the ballpark about an hour early, in plenty of time to see the announcer introduce one of my friends who works with Baseball Chapel, an organization that works to make Christian services available to baseball players and umpires. During the season, it's hard for players and umpires to be able to attend services at their home church (especially when they're the visiting team), so Baseball Chapel helps provide opportunities for players to nurture their faith throughout the season. I headed down to the field to let my friend know I was at the game and he introduced me to his co-chaplain. I headed back to my seat and they headed off to do whatever else they needed to do before the game started.

A little later, I ran into them again and we all sat together. As it turns out, the co-chaplain is also into scoring baseball games. Since I've been teaching myself how to do it over the past several weeks, I was excited to be able to sit next to someone who really knew what they were doing and pick up some hints. I had a great time, and hope to run into him again at the ballpark sometime.

My coworker and his son arrived in the 2nd or 3rd inning. They had a great time and it was really cool to watch a little boy be overwhelmed by the spectacle that is a live baseball game.

The Hoppers lost (no surprise there) 5-2, but the last several innings were pretty enjoyable. I'll be heading to Durham to watch the Bulls next Sunday. And the day after that, I'll be back at the Greensboro game for their last home game of the season.

I'm adding a baseball scorebook to my Christmas list this year.

Ham Radio

One of the other things that has been keeping me busy lately is ham radio. We're in the process of connecting the W4GSO repeater to the Gateway, so it will be able to connect to other repeaters and reflectors all over the world. It's been on the Gateway for about 2 weeks now, and we're still experiencing growing pains. But we're getting there, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's really neat to be able to key up a handheld radio and make a UHF call that ends up getting heard in England.

I'm one of the administrators for the Gateway, partly because I have some Linux experience. It's really neat to be able to help out with this. After we get all most enough of the gremlins worked out, I'm looking forward to exploring some of the cool things you can do with the Gateway.


Hopefully it won't be so long between blogging here again....

Today was my last day teaching the Sunday School class I've taught for seven and a half years. We finished our study of Isaiah.

When class was over, I almost cried when I thanked everyone for making my teaching experience so rewarding. I was especially touched that a few people specifically came today because they knew it was my last day -- people, e.g., who are generally too frail to be out much. Since I knew it was going to be emotional, I left them a letter expressing my thanks instead of trying to stammer through saying something. When I left, everyone clapped, and several stood up to clap. It really was very touching.

If I'm not in Chicago next weekend, it's going to be weird going to church and not teaching a class.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to do much in the way of updates here. One thing that's in the works is something that I keep meaning to talk about, but never get around to it.

This coming Sunday is going to be my last day teaching my Sunday School class.

Passing on the teaching responsibilities to someone else is something that's been on my mind for a while now, and over the past month or so, I've worked with the class leadership to help ensure a smooth transition. I've been in this position or seven and a half years and it's going to be a bit of a change for the class without me behind the podium. They're going to get along just fine -- there are several people currently in the class who will be great teachers, and they've decided on a structured study that they'll start working out of.

I'm really going to miss teaching that class. I've learned so much in the years that I've been teaching. But it's really best that I move on now, before I get totally burned out.

Sunday's sermon worked pretty well, I think. The parts where I asked a question, I waited for the congregation to answer before going forward. That was pretty different than what usually happens and the congregation didn't know what to think of it at first, I think. By the final time I asked the question, they were mostly right on board. I didn't think of it very much beforehand, but that's the aspect of the sermon that I got the most comments about. People seemed happy to "mix it up" a bit and have some back-and-forth during the message.

We had some technical difficulties with the laptop that is used to project the song lyrics and scripture on the wall. The youth running the laptop weren't able to get it working 'till just about the time I was ready to start my sermon. So we didn't have lyrics up for the songs except the reprise, and the scripture wasn't on the wall, either, until the very end. Once the laptop was working, and before I started preaching, I had a short back-and-forth with the youth running the laptop, which I think actually worked pretty well to help set a more laid-back, informal mood.

I decided to work from the lectionary scripture this time instead of choosing my own. I used Peterson's paraphrase of the Bible, The Message, for the text. That's something that I'm usually hesitant to do, preferring to use a translation. But, occasionally, something really jumps out at me from The Message. This time, it was how he rendered Hosea 6:6 -- "I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know GOD, not go to more prayer meetings."

I mostly stayed with the prepared text, but I did end up ad-libbing a bit here and there.

All in all, I think it went well.

Do You Want To Know God?
prepared by Greg Cohoon for delivery on June 8, 2008
Mount Pisgah UMC Praise & Worship Service

Scripture: Hosea 5:15-6:6

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I've been really busy with some unexpected situations the past few weeks, which is the main reason I didn't write a new sermon from scratch for this past Sunday. Instead, I reworked a sermon I preached back in 2002 titled "Can I Get A Witness?"

I'm just going to link to where I put it online back then instead of reproducing the reworked version here. It was great that we were already planning on singing a version of "Amazing Grace," so the references I made to that song were still relevant this weekend. The main thing I had to change was where I made reference to "the terror events of last fall."

After church, a couple of people approached me independently with the same compliment -- they really liked how my sermons are laid out in a linear fashion that are easy to follow. I told them that I'm a computer guy -- that's the way I think. The compliments both came from schoolteachers, who probably appreciate an organized presentation even more than I do.

I'm preaching again in a few weeks, on June 8. I'll have a brand new sermon for then.

My sermon this past weekend went well. My parents came to visit for the weekend, which was great. A few people who don't normally attend the Praise and Worship service came so that they could hear me preach. I was only a little nervous -- I'm used to speaking in front of people, so that wasn't a big deal. Most of my anxiousness stemmed from the fact that I had only completed writing the sermon a few days prior to delivering it. I would have liked to have had more time to let it marinate before delivery. Well, that's my own fault, and there's always next month's sermon to improve on that.

Here's the sermon as prepared. I went off-text a few times, but I mostly stuck to it. I left the section headings in the text, but I obviously didn't say them when I delivered the sermon.

Don't Shoot The Messenger
prepared by Greg Cohoon for delivery on April 13, 2008
Mount Pisgah UMC Praise & Worship Service

Scripture: Luke 4:16-30

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I accepted another preaching request the other day, which means that I'll now be preaching in April, May, and June:

• April 13
• May 11
• June 8

I'll be preaching out of Luke 4:16-30 for the April sermon in a few weeks. I haven't thought about what I'll be doing for the other two sermons yet.

It's been a bit of a busy weekend. Mostly relaxing. Of course, I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I hoped/planned. Really, looking at my plans, I didn't get anything checked off my list except getting half my laundry washed.

I really need to get some stuff straightened around the house. I've got a handful of piles all over the place. It's way past time to get them consolidated, sorted through, and organized. That was my main plan for the weekend, but I really didn't make any progress on that.

Yesterday, in the process of cleaning the kitchen and doing dishes, I noticed a puddle of water being created on the floor as the dishwasher ran. I investigated it enough to determine that it wasn't the dishwasher. Instead, it was the garbage disposal, which had rusted through in one place. So, off to Home Depot I go to buy a replacement.

Oh, wait. Before that, I went to church mid-afternoon to help set up for today's Praise Band. But we couldn't set up, 'cause the hall was being used for a supper yesterday evening. No one called me to let me know that we wouldn't be able to set up 'till after supper, so that was a bit of a kink in the afternoon. Oh, well.

After not setting up for Praise Band, I headed downtown to get a library card. The downtown library is really cool. I didn't spend much time there -- I really just wanted to get a card and pick up a ham-related book. But I think I'll go spend more time down there in the future.

Anyway, I did a bit more messing around the house when I got back. That's when I noticed the problem with the disposal. I didn't have enough time to disconnect the old disposal before heading back to church for Praise Band set-up, but I made a bit of progress. I swung by the Home Depot to get a replacement before heading to church. Set-up went pretty quickly, and I headed back home to finish the disposal replacement. That went pretty easy. I went to bed tired.

I overslept this morning, so I didn't make it out to early church. When I got to Sunday School, I ran into a couple of other people from the band. They told me that the other guitarist was sick, and wouldn't make it in this morning. Oh, well. We've got two guitars, we can do it. Oh, wait -- I really just play back-up. The other guitarist plays lead, and a couple of the songs today really featured him. A couple of people were thinking we should switch out some of the songs. Someone asked me if I could play the lead parts. I shrugged -- maybe. With yarbiedoll still under the weather, we were down a vocalist, too, which made it even that much more challenging.

We had some time to run through everything a bit. I played lead and it worked out OK. So that's what we did. All in all, it was OK -- it definitely would have been better with the full band -- but it was OK.

I had the full afternoon to do the cleaning I had planned, but I fell asleep during the race. After waking up, I never really recovered. I've just been sluggish all day. I did manage to finish cleaning up the kitchen and do about half my laundry, though, so that's something.

It's pretty late, and I really want to resume my running schedule tomorrow morning, so I'm heading to bed.

I rode my motorcycle to church today. That was nice.

In Sunday School, we reviewed Psalm 104 and studied Psalm 105. I told the class how much I hated Daylight Savings Time. About half the class seemed the agree with me, the other half seemed to like DST. A few people really liked DST and said I was just being a grouch. Well, maybe I was being a grouch, but I still hate DST.

I did a couple more loads of laundry while finishing my Sunday School preparation this morning. I didn't finish it all last night because I spent more time that I though I would at the geocaching event yesterday, then sidelobe, yarbiedoll, and I all went to enjoy a Chinese dinner. The food was OK, the company was wonderful.

I think I'm in store for a pretty lazy afternoon. I can definitely use it.

Since I'm going to need a substitute Sunday School teacher in a few weeks, I got up this morning and started putting together some substitute lessons before church. Then the phone rang -- it was work. Our team was putting in an install last night, and ended up having a couple of questions about the portion of the software that I wrote. It really wasn't too big a deal -- I answered the questions and that was that. Honestly, I was sort of expecting to get a call about 0200 this morning about something, so the call wasn't terribly out of the blue.

Then, about 10 minutes later, they called again.

This time, I wasn't able to quickly figure out what was going on and determined that I'd need to look at the application's log files to help troubleshoot the issue. Since my company has a policy that only company-owned equipment can be used to access the internal network (i.e., I can't use my own computer to dial-in) and I don't have any company-owned equipment at home, that meant that I needed to go to the office. Yikes! I needed to be at church by 0930 for Sunday School, and it was about 0830 when I got the call. I bypassed the shower and just put my church clothes on and headed to the office. Fortunately, I live close to the office. Also fortunately, the office and the church are real close to each other. On the way in, I called the president of the Sunday School class to warn her that I might not make it in time. She was very supportive.

It turns out that by the time I got in and logged on, they figured out what was going on, and there really wasn't a problem. *sigh of relief* Once I had a chance to chat with everyone and we all agreed that everything was OK, I headed on to church -- with plenty of time to set the room up before class.

Sunday School went great again today. We've rearranged the room to have the chairs in a circle instead of in rows, and I think I like it better this way -- everyone can see everyone else, everyone can hear everyone else. I'm sure that there are a handful of people who aren't happy with the new set-up -- some of the folks miss being able to sit in the back row. I planned for our discussion to be on Psalms 102 and 103, but we ended up with so much good discussion about 102 that we didn't even get to 103. We can look forward to that, and maybe 104, next week.

Church was also good today. Hank continued his series of sermons about the congregation's vision, and how we can work to go about fulfilling it.

When I got home, I heated me up some roast for lunch and watched Raceline in anticipation of today's NASCAR race. As soon as the race coverage started at 1300, my heart sank, as I recognized the tell-tale signs of a track that had been plagued by rain. They kept claiming that they were optimistic about getting the race started, so I made some cheese dip to eat during the race. It's two hours later, and still raining in Atlanta, so I don't know if they'll get it started or not today. And if they do get it started, it will probably be a short race -- the radar shows rain all around Atlanta, so it will probably be tough for them to get the race in.

Well, since I'm not currently asleep and since the race is in a rain delay, I think I'm going to go out for my daily walk. If it's the first time in a long time that I go out for a walk, can I call it a daily walk? What if my intentions are to make it a daily walk? IOW, how many consecutive days do I need to walk before I can call it a daily walk instead of a fluke?

At church today, our Associate Pastor informed the congregation that he'll be moving on to another charge this summer. In Ireland! Wow, that's really cool. A lot of people seem sad about his moving on, and in some respects, I am, too. But this is how it works for pastors in the UMC. Dave's been with our church for seven years and has really been good for us. He'll be gone for two years, at which time he'll return to the Western NC Conference. I bet a lot of people think that means he'll come back to our church, but I doubt that'll happen. Whatever the future holds for him, I wish him well.

I kind of wish that I was still on the Staff-Parish Relations Committee. I'd really like to see, first-hand, how the process of hiring a new minister works, especially since I'd like to be on the other side of that process some time.

We had a good Sunday School class today. After class, one of the members came up and told me how much she enjoys and gets out of the class. She said she especially appreciates the sense of humor I bring to the lessons. I've been really happy with the past several weeks -- mostly because I've taken more time for lesson prep. A big help has been the Accordance Bible software package. I've had Accordance for several years, but the small screen on the laptop made it more difficult to use than it was worth. Now that we've got the new computer, I started using Accordance again and remember how much I like it. The company that makes it has recently started a blog, which I also really enjoy reading.

Today's Sunday School lesson was Psalm 100 and 101.

Note to self: Hank asked you to dress up in your prophet costume (bka Jesus costume) for a part in Sunday's sermon at both services. He wants you be Elijah.

You agreed to do it.

I was tired for church, having been up late the night before (drove back to NC from MD) and having been up early that morning (Sunday School lesson prep), so I wasn't in the best of minds for worship. For that matter, I wasn't in the best of minds for teaching Sunday School, either.

We sang a song out of the auxiliary hymnal, #2130 -- "The Summons." I'm pretty sure it was the first time I've ever seen that song. It had a nice melody, apparently based on a traditional Scottish tune. I thought it might sound nice on my mandolin.

Rev. Howard preached a sermon titled "A Few Good Followers," based on the Scripture describing Jesus' call to his first disciples. It was a good sermon -- people were still talking about it tonight at Men's Group -- and I was impressed with the theological soundness and general accessibility of the message. As if often the case with sermons, this one included a "sound bite" to take away, and I liked it enough that I scribbled it in the margin of my bulletin: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." The main theme of the message centered around the thought that being a follower (of Christ) necessarily involves movement.

After church, many people went down to the Fellowship Hall, where we enjoyed lively fellowship (see, it's a noun!) and celebrated birthdays in what is known as the annual church-wide birthday party. It's a neat tradition that the church has been doing for a while -- basically an excuse to have a pot-luck. There was lots of yummy food, and lots of yummy cake. I went home full.

I'm headed to a funeral this afternoon.

From the local paper:

FREEMAN, PATSY COBLE

GREENSBORO -- Patsy Coble Freeman, 71, of Tower Road, died Saturday, January 14, 2006 at her home.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, January 17, 2006, at Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church.

She was born on June 7, 1934 in Greensboro to Herbert Lacy Coble and Doris Andrews Coble. She was a graduate of U.N.C.G. She was a member of Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church, a former Sunday School Teacher and Bible Mentor to many children.

She was a volunteer at Wesley Long and Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospitals. She was preceded in death by her parents, son Joseph F. Freeman III, sister Harriet C. Douglas, and brother Kenneth M. Coble.

Patsy is survived by son Jonathan Andrew Freeman and wife Channing, and grandchildren Alex and Reagan all of Woodlands Texas; sisters Jean C. DeSanto and Lacy C. Starr of Greensboro; brother H. Vernon Coble of High Point; and stepsister Lea Jane Beranite of Tennessee. Special Caregivers niece Kim Douglas and her fiance David Soderquist have been at home with Patsy. Patsy is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews and adopted sons Dr. Young Chu Chung of Korea and Greensboro, and Joshua Toomer of Largo Fla.

The family will receive friends from 1 to 2 p.m. on Tuesday in the parlor at Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church prior to the service.

Memorials may be directed to either the Ernestine L. Penry Scholarship Foundation or Camp Guilrock, the United Methodist Camp in care of Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church, 2600 Pisgah Church Rd., Greensboro NC 27455.

Forbis & Dick N. Elm is assisting the family.

Patsy was really cool -- she used to be a member of the Sunday School class I teach, before I started teaching. She had to drop out of the class because in recent years her health prevented her from walking down the hallway to the classroom, so she started going to the contemporary service instead. But every now and then, she'd walk down before class started and give me a big ol' hug. Occasionally, she'd give me a charity-related tie and probably had more fun watching me unwrap the package than I had unwrapping it. She was always full of joy and wore an impish smile.

In her honor, I'm wearing the "Save The Children" tie that she gave me for Christmas a few years ago.

I'll probably do a better job of recapping Sunday School each week, but I'll see how I do with doing a church recap as well.

We sang some hymns that I enjoy: "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" and "Standing on the Promises."

The church received a new member today, a transfer member from a church in Georgia.

All of the scripture was from the New Testament: Matthew 7:21-28 and John 6:60-69.

The sermon was titled "The Power of Decisions." Rev. Thompson spoke about the different decisions we make every day, small and large, and how all of our decisions should be Christ-oriented.

I just got back from the funeral for my friend Mike Clemons. It was a wonderful service -- a great celebration of his life and a powerful testimony to his faith. Mike was very active in the church and my Sunday School class. He was a fixture on the back row and always had a smile to greet everyone.

On the way to the sanctuary, one of the members of my Sunday School class mentioned that it was tough going to two funerals so close together. Mike will certainly be missed.

From the local paper:

CLEMONS, MICHAEL JACKSON

GREENSBORO -- Michael Jackson Clemons, 53, died Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005, at Moses Cone Hospital.

The funeral service will be held at 5 p.m. today at Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church. Visitation will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the church. Mr. Clemons will be taken to the Fries Pentecostal Church for a visitation and burial at 2 p.m. Sunday.

He was born on Nov. 14, 1951, in Fries, Va., to Alma Lanter Clemons and Foster Jackson Clemons. His dad and his grandparents, Mae and Joe Clemons and Nellie and Robert Lanter predeceased him.

He is survived by his mom, Alma Clemons Arnold; his sister and brother-in-law, Jerri and Fletcher Riffey; nephew Richard Sumner (Tina); his great-nephews, Brandon and Taylor Sumner, who were the love of his life; stepsisters Patsy Perry and June Taylor (Tommy); nephews, Jonathan and Jason Riffey; niece Joni Riffey. He is survived by his many friends, Flo, Larry, Bill, Bud, Neal, Lynn, Mac, Darrell, Mark, LuAnn, Rad and Linda.

Mike was born with a very rare heart and lung disease, Eisenmenger's Syndrome. He lived life to the fullest despite his health problems.

He was a member of Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church, where he served on the mission's board. He was a certified lay leader and taught Disciple at Salisbury Prison for the last two years. He had a great love for prison ministry. He answered the crisis line for AA for 17 years and was a counselor for Fellowship Hall. He served as a counselor for the Whobodies, Mt. Pisgah's youth group.

The family wishes to express their love and gratitude to Dr. Richard Weintraub. He was always there for Mike. He wasn't just his doctor, but a true friend and a special thanks to his devoted friend, Margaret Jackson.

In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to Mount Pisgah Methodist Church for Camp Gilrock or the Whobodies.

I miss Mike already.

In July and August, my church modifies the worship services to reflect a style similar to Methodist Camp Meetings. They've been doing this for a few years, and I always enjoy worshiping in this style for a few months of the year. Today was the first Camp Meeting style service of the year. It involves lots of singing. And it's singing the old-style southern gospel songs, which are some of my favorite.

Today, one of the songs we sung was I'll Fly Away, which I absolutely love. It was somewhat odd that it was accompanied by organ, but the choir director hopped on the piano by the second verse, which helped give it a more gospel feel.

Some glad morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away;
to a home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away.
I'll fly away, O glory, I'll fly away.
When I die, hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly away.

I think I might have to pull my mandolin out this afternoon and play it a few times.