Just one more week until I perform my first wedding ever.  In Dutch.

I feel surprisingly at-ease about the occasion.  My text is already prepared (and Marco and Claudia have been extremely enthusiastic and encouraging about what I've put together).  Public speaking engagements don't freak me out any more.  I've even preached in Dutch before (though you could count all such occurences on one hand -- or even one-half of one hand!).  And more than anything, I'm just really excited to be given such a role of honor for these two people who I really love and appreciate...

But I've been thinking about how strange it is that I've gotten to this point in my career without ever having performed a wedding before.  I've been in full-time ministry for over ten years now -- working primarily among young people (who are notoriously famous for that whole falling-in-love thing) -- and I've even been in a position of primary church leadership for almost eight years.  And yet, next weekend will be my first opportunity to preside over a wedding ceremony.

It just underscores the fact that my roles in ministry are evolving and changing.

Up until recently, I've always had another co-leader who's typically played more of the "mouthpiece" role.  Matt Hilderbran in Bowling Green.  Steve Bush and Todd Watkins, here in Amsterdam.  And even though God has blessed us with an awesome group of up-and-coming men here in Amsterdam, who are playing the role of volunteer-preacher as often as they can fit it in around their other jobs and personal responsibilities -- it seems that I'm currently being put in a position to serve as more of the "default communicator."  At least for now, for this season of life and ministry.

In the past, I would have been genuinely uncomfortable in such a position.  Not that I don't feel like I can or that I'm necessarily bad at it; it's just that I haven't really wanted to be a preacher.  I went into ministry for the one-on-one, having-coffee-and-talking-about-life stuff.  Or for small group ministry opportunities.  I've always thought that the 20 hours it would take me to prepare a message could be much better spent having 10-15 individual appointments with people, interacting one-on-one.  And indeed, this is the way that my ministry has developed over the last ten years.  But in the current situation, with the church I lead being kind of "between preachers" (after Todd and before the next batch of guys is fully developed), my ministry is evolving.  And what's strangest of all is that I don't actually mind all that much.  With these new "ministry assignments," God has given me grace to see and experience the ways that He can and does use me -- even from behind the "pulpit" (though, in our case, there's no actual pulpit or lectern involved!).  I even feel (dare I admit it?) a little excited about the opportunities to preach at occasions like Marco and Claudia's wedding... like the series on the Gospel of Luke that we're about to begin as a church this weekend...

Truth be told, I'm still hoping that it will be just a season of filling this more traditional church leadership role.  But even so, it's good to know that God is with me -- and that He can use me.  I can be tempted to pull out the ol' "Moses excuse" (that's the title reference, by the way, from Exodus 4:10).  But at least for today, I'm trusting God when He says, "I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say."  At least for today, I'm forgning ahead with God's staff in my hand and His name on my lips...