No matter what the college course contains, it can never prepare you for real life in ministry.There will always be occasions when you have to think on your feet. So I came across another of those gems of moments on Sunday past in Annalong.
I'm helping out by doing holiday cover for some Sunday services down there. You're never sure how things are going to go in a new parish, which has its own ways of doing things. So I was probably slightly nervous - certainly not as comfortable as I would have been in Magheralin or Dromore.
And it came to the Children's Talk. The thing I'm not so used to doing. The thing I dread. I had been assured the kids would come up to the front and I could talk to them there. But oh no. I asked them to come up, and no one budged. I asked again, trying to catch their attention. A couple of heads peeked out of pews, but no one ventured forward. It would just have taken one to come, and the rest would follow. But it wasn't to be. A Children's Talk with no children at the front. Me looking slightly embarrassed. What to do?
So my thinking on my feet kicked in. I had the radio mic on, so decided that if they weren;t coming to me, I could go to them! So the children's talk was delivered by wandering up and down the aisle, talking to the kids in their pews as they sat with their families.
I'll never forget that, and maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all. I'll know what to do next time though!
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