GlocalNet

YES, you heard it right – first – I doubt it’s her last.  She blew me away.  Yes, she’s my daughter, but I’ve listened to guys who’ve been trained at seminary not do near the job she did.  I was excited and stunned it being her first sermon.  I remember mine – it wasn’t all that good.  It was fast – 12 minutes – choppy, etc.  I was ready to encourage her like I do so many other young pastors when they preach their first – or they’re just starting.  You find all the good things you can brag on them about to build them up and then give them just 2 or 3 things to work on.  She can improve – but man she did good!  Click the link . . . Jill’s Sermon, Who Is Your Neighbor? . .  and you can hear her.

She preached on the Good Samaritan.  She talked about how we have an identity – and our identity determines which side of the road we walk on – the side where people hurt and need Jesus and the side where we don’t have to get our hands dirty with them.  She then talked about the identity of others – and how we should respect them and value them.  She used a great opening illustration – she talked about walking in someone elses’s shoes and had Brandon Smeltzer and Daniel Langford have a foot race in some of her high hills – it was funny.  She also had kids come up and talk about neighbors they had discovered this summer in working with refugees, apartment complexes, mission trips to Vietnam, etc. 

I remember when God first spoke to her heart and she sensed God calling her to ministry.  She told us when she was maybe 7 “God wants me to be a preacher.”  I don’t know all her future holds – but I believe God has his hand on her and is and will use her.  Jill is in charge of Glocal Impact for youth and has done an awesome job with it.  It’s grown significantly and she loves it.  From working with Somalis and Nepalese new to the area, to taking youth to Vietnam, to working at apartment complexes where the less privileged live – I believe her sermon was powerful most all because she is living it. 

I loved her prayer as she began to speak “God don’t let me say anything that would be from me – only from you.”  As her earthly Father, I believe her heavenly Father was pleased.