Changing Routines and Getting Back to Teaching

I don't lead a very structured life. Other than my morning coffee and quiet time, I really can't say that I have much of a routine going throughout each day. But I may be wrong about that. I think that doing nothing or having no routine has become a routine of its own.

I say that because I've noticed that I really seem off when I've worked the night (or a couple of nights) at the shelter. It seems to take me longer to readjust to my normal hours than it used to. I don't know if it's due to age or maybe it's just so different from what I've become used to doing. In any case, I am pretty much back to my daily routine of having nothing planned and doing just that.

It looks like I will be adding teaching a weekly class to my routine in about a month. 
I'm going to be leading a small group study on the Bible as a storybook. I think that I'll be looking at taking stories from different sections of the Bible -- law, history, wisdom, prophets (major and minor), and the New Testament -- and examining them from a fresh perspective. It will only be a ten week class. I don't yet know if I will plan on doing just one story per class and little insight into the Bible itself, or maybe do two or three stories per night. I have a few weeks to figure that out and want to be sensitive to adapting to class expectations, as well.

It has been a while since I've done much teaching or preaching and I have a feeling doing the prep work for each session will be a challenge. I was looking for recordings of my few times speaking at The Venues at 425 (previously known as Barchurch), but only found one still in the archives. We had been studying the effects of change -- how changing our minds affects our brains, the actual physiological changes to our brains and our bodies. My message was on changing our religion or perspective on how we see God.

If you have 30 minutes to spare and want to hear it you can find it here. My part begins about the 27 minute mark.

Storytelling from the Bible is my style, but I don't want this class to turn into a preaching kind of thing and will have to take care that it doesn't. I do hope that people will be encouraged to read the Bible and to find a connection to God and to one another through its stories. I hope that we all have open minds and are willing to change our perspectives to get a better view of what is true.

John