Hard Week

Have you ever had a week where you just can't get to whatever it is that needs to be done? That's pretty much how this week is going...

#1 Computer Problems
The Power Supply on my desktop went out. Hence, trying to type on my laptop slowed me down. New psu shows up and after installation, computer works, for awhile. I now find out my hard drive is going out. I'm trying to back up all of my information so it doesn't get lost. Oh fun.

#2 Adoption Process
Our home study is this week. The social worker spends a day here interviewing us. I don't mind the process, but that's most of a day that I can't work.

#3 Thursday
I don't mind Thursdays. They are perfectly wonderful days. ALL of our Bible studies happen to fall on Thursdays. I'm not quite sure how this happened. Oh well, it works. It just doesn't leave a whole lot of time to work on a sermon.

#4 Christmas
Ok, I love Christmas. As the song goes, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." This is my first Christmas as a pastor and I'm getting a glimpse of all that goes on in a church during Christmas. It's pretty cool, but time consuming.

Anyway, that's a glimpse of this week. #1 is the most frustrating, but I'm dealing with it. I enjoy computer work so I'm getting it all done. I just need to focus on other things first.

I have my sermon narrowed down for this week. We'll be studying the kenosis in Christmas. If you have no idea what that is, look it up. Studying builds character. :-) Or read Phil. 2:5-11 for an idea.

You know what, I think this is enough for today. I better get to work on this sermon.

God bless,
Parson Larson

Merry Christmas

It's looking like it will be one of the busiest Christmases I've had for quite awhile, but I guess that I can expect that now that I'm a pastor. (For those just stumbling across this, I'm at my first pastorate in Kansas.)

For those who live in North Central Kansas, I have one question... Does it snow here? We moved here in August and had some good rain storms (tornado just north of us) but it is now December 12th and we haven't had any snow yet!!! We have had 60+ degree weather in the last week. What's going on? Nothing is forecasted for this week either. Oh well, just remember this post when we're snowed in this January.

Had dinner with some new friends in the area last night. Like myself, he is a young pastor in a rural setting so we have quite a bit in common there, plus their two boys are the same ages as my kids, and Misty and Mary Ellen get along really well too. It was a lot of fun.

Last Sunday's sermon was about missing Christ in Christmas and comparing us to those who missed Him the first Christmas. I'm not entirely sure what this week I'll be preaching on, other than a Christmas theme, but I have a few ideas. Just need to narrow them down to something a little more specific.

Our Home Study for our adoption is coming up this week, please keep us in your prayers. I'm kind of nervous about that. If you want more information go to Misty's blog at mistyandtyler.blogspot.com

God bless and Merry Christmas!
"Parson Larson"

Day after Thanksgiving

Black Friday. It sounds creepy unless you get your income from people shopping at your business. The day that puts you back into the "black" financially. The one day that I'm really, really glad that I don't work retail anymore!!!

I pray that you all had a great Thanksgiving. I'm reminded of all the blessings that God has given my family this past year. Although I miss being in Nebraska with the rest of my family, God has brought us to a wonderful place here in Kansas. Last week I gave a sermon on Thanksgiving (if you would like notes from this sermon leave me a comment and I'll try to get them to you) and I told about the prayers Misty and I had about the church we would end up in. All of them had been answered. I am so grateful for that!!! It was even more than we prayed for. It has been a great blessing for us to be here.

Remember Who you are thankful to and make sure you are thanking Him more than just once a year!!!

Invictus by His Grace,
Tyler

Guilty

Ok, you've discovered that I'm not the most consistent as far as posting goes. I just put time into other things. By the way, linerider, although fun, takes up too much time.

I'm looking forward to the sermon this week. It's going to be a look at our freedom in Christ and the war between our old and new natures. (Gal. 5:13-26) We continually struggle with the old nature and it's desires. It reminds me of a song by Smalltown Poets called "Everything I Hate". The song says "I'm into everything I hate, my spirit is not moved, my members take the bait." We hate the sin but we keep going back to it like a dog to it's own vomit. Sickening how we continue to live in the sin that Christ died to set us free from.

Invictus by His Grace,
Tyler

Been Awhile...

It's been awhile since I posted anything, but since I don't think anyone has read this yet, no big deal.

I do not remember much about last week. I'm not entirely sure why, but it all went by in a big blur (I don't even remember Tuesday).
This week is going a little better. We're all fighting colds and our voices sound strange as a result. The sermon for this Sunday should flow together pretty smoothly. I need to run it through a good outline and do some more writing (which usually corresponds with more research), but I think it will go well.

For those who are interested it will be on Gal. 5:1-12.

God bless,
Tyler

Back to Normal (whatever normal is)

Sorry about the lack of a post for the last few days, like I said in my last post we were going to have a crazy week. Everything went really well for us though. Had a great visit with my mom and grandma, the visit from our DR with Village Missions went great. It was great to see them all again. Just wish we lived a little closer so my family could see the kids a little more. I guess that's part of the cost of being where God wants me to be.

Could be an interesting sermon this next Sunday. I'm planning on doing a message on Galatians 4:19-31. We've been going through Galatians and it seems like we are getting a pretty good grip on the basic subject matter. Keep me in your prayers though as I work on this message. I really want the sermons presented to the congregation to be God's message to them.

I need to go out and do some visitation this week. I want to visit some of the leaders in the church, plus I think we'll have dinner with a family from church some night soon. We have tried to have dinner with them about two or three times before but something has always made us postpone.

God bless,
Tyler

I don't feel so good...

Well good morning to everyone out there. Yesterday and today I've been fighting a bit of a head cold. Because of this my voice in the morning makes Barry White sound like a soprano. I'm praying that this will pass soon. We have a busy week coming up.
Misty and I will have a meeting about adoption on Wednesday in Wichita. My mom and grandma will be showing up here sometime on Thursday for the weekend. Misty is decorating a cake for a baby shower which will be Sunday afternoon (after both a potluck and our evening service which we hold in the afternoons when we have potlucks). Plus, my boss, the District Rep. for VM will by showing up here on Saturday afternoon, so we get to have a board meeting that night. I'm pretty sure next week might get back to normal. Whatever normal is.
On the plus side of things, my sermon for Sunday is already written. We had a funeral for Misty's grandpa this last Saturday and so we had to leave town for the weekend. A friend from VM filled pulpit for me. (Thanks Nathan!)
I'm going to go work on the sermon a little bit more this morning. Even though it's written, I now have time to make it a little better, and then off for visitation this afternoon.

God bless,
Tyler

The Life of a Village Missionary

My wife Misty and I have decided to do a couple of blogs about different things in our lives. This one is about our lives as Village Missionaries. Our other is located at larsonlove.blogspot.com and is about different things we're doing in our lives.

We have been Village Missionaries in north-central Kansas for just over 2 months and have experienced a large change in our lives since we moved here. Previously I was the manager at a coffee shop in Nebraska and being a pastor is a completely different experience. However, this is what I've wanted to do since High School and finally being able to be where God has prepared me to be is extremely exciting.

We are going through the book of Galatians during our Sunday morning services and are really getting a glimpse of grace vs. the Law. Sunday nights we are going through the 10 basic doctrines and everyone is learning a lot. It's great to see people excited about learning more about God.

We are in a very rural location (nearest neighbor is a mile away) so the personal aspect of ministry is drastically different from what I had anticipated. It is a lot harder to visit people because of the distance from everyone plus having them not be home when you do get there is a difficulty that I'm trying to deal with. (Please pray for me in this.)

More on this later, God bless,
Tyler