sermons and services

Since we have a sermon every week, can't we have a live service every week too? I always forget the live services because they're so rare... but if we have a live service every sunday evening, then we all know there's supposed to be a service...

Also, when it comes to sermons, now that the roster is larger, can't we remove the open sermon slot? Have someone from the regular clergy produce a sermon once a week every week with no gap, and have open sermons any time...

I like the idea of this! Perhaps we could get a live stream too?

We can do a live stream but we usually interact in chat so the stream would have huge blanks when the MC is waiting for everyone to type.

Unfortunately, not enough volunteers for a live service....

I for one, cannot do it...

And as life is changing constantly, what a let down if something happens, where I can write something in the days leading up to my date, and post it a day early if need be...

Nor is it fair for one person to have to do them all....

But, should someone want their sermon date to be a live service, I am sure there would be no problem with it...

Obviously I meant that people who do the sermon should do the live service... They're all clergy after all.

As Jestor said, not everyone can do it. I have been running the live services for almost a year and only 1 other person has ever been able to host one. Anyone is welcome to host a live service if they want to though and I'm more than happy to help them prepare for it.

I quite like the live services to be monthly because it makes them more than just a regular sermon. If they are held too often, people might take them for granted and only turn up when they feel like it, instead of making an effort to do so. I would rather have slight more people turn up once a month than a lot less turn up more often.

As for the Open Sermon slot, it was not created to pad out the schedule - it's there to give non-Clergy members of the Temple the chance to contribute to this aspect of the Church and to share some of their own wisdom in a sermon.

The problem is that you can't assume that people will be available just because they're down on the sermon schedule. Submitting a sermon doesn't mean that you are necessarily around on the Sunday, or have the time to both write a sermon and plan a service.

As Master Jestor said...things come up and life changes...the sermon schedule is determined a long way in advance, and although you might not have anything planned at the time things will inevitably come up.

That said, I would always be happy to take a service if asked. I'm never doing anything at that time on a Sunday evening :laugh:

Edit: how did it take me more than 4 minutes to write that? :laugh: Sorry GrandMaster Mark...

Wouldn't it be best if they could do that (open sermon) at any time? And just keep proper sermons as "coming for sure every weekend"?

The problem with the live services being only once a month is that they're easy to forget. They're kind of random. I learned of Ace's service too late and couldn't make it. I really didn't want to miss it.

In christian churches they know there's mass every Sunday and that's why they regularly show up... And not accidentally when they happen to be on site and see the shouts and bumps on the services thread...

And to reflect on Vicki's comment, someone else could do the live service. I mean there's plenty of clergy people around.

Basically what I'm saying is you have to pay for the fancy clergy rank bar

The Sermon Schedule is determined around two months in advance so there's plenty of notice for each Live Service. It's even stickied as a post.

Like I say, I'm more than happy for someone to take an Open Sermon slot but that's only happened once in a year. The chance of it happening every week seem minimal and there's no way that I can take that on myself.