A warm welcome to Dr. Mark Henry Miller as Interim Senior Minister. His first Sunday was July 5, 2009.
Mark comes to our First Christian Church with a wealth of experience, having served United Churches of Christ for 31 years in Illinois, Oregon, Ohio and Colorado. Ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1966, he has also served for over ten years as a Conference Minister in the South Central Conference of the UCC in Austin and as Transitional Interim Conference Minister in the Pacific Northwest Conference of the UCC. Conference Minister in the UCC corresponds to Regional Minister in our denomination.
Mark received a degree in History and Psychology from Stanford University, a Bachelor of Divinity from Yale University Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Eden Theological Seminary. He is a Credentialed Mediator in the State of Texas.
He has published two books of pastoral epistles to his churches and clergy with whom he’s worked—Road Signs on the Way to Fishing and Cast Your Nets and has completed four murder/mystery novels, that include, as you could anticipate, ministry and fishing.
Mark’s wife, Diane, is Vice-President of Information Technology, formerly Washington Mutual Bank, now J.P. Morgan Chase. One of the Millers’ sons, Jason and his wife, Teela, live in San Marcos and are the parents of twin boys, Jackson and Aiden, born in June of 2007. The Millers also have two more sons. Matthew teaches high school English and Journalism in Park Ridge, Illinois. Matthew and his wife, Sheila, are proud parents of Laura Katelynn. Andrew is the men's basketball head coach at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. Andrew and his wife, Jennifer, are the proud parents of a son, Dylan Chase. Diane also has a twin sister and family living in Austin .
He and Diane love to spend their free time fly-fishing in Colorado. Mark has indicated he has fly rods and reels ready for all the grandchildren and is self-appointed as their first fly-casting teacher.
A Message From Dr. Mark Henry Miller — Interim Senior Minister
The moment has never left me. During a farewell reception as I left one congregation to accept the call of another, Don came by to wish me well. Don was one of the most valued members of the congregation, had been attending church when, in his word, “he was carried in for baptism” and would end when, again his affirmation, “when they carry me out at the end of my journey.”
What Don was known for, but no one complained or intruded with an alert pill, is he had yet-to-be-diagnosed sleep apnea. That meant, well before the sermon’s 2nd paragraph, Don was “gone to the world and the sermon and everything else around him,” including the hymns, the offertory, the doxology and the closing hymn. At times an understanding parishioner would awaken Don when the postlude ended.
Don was excited to share in the farewell reception line, “Mark, I’ve got good, even wonderful news. On Tuesday I’m going to the Akron Hospital’s Sleep Clinic, to see why I always fall asleep, especially during your sermons. [The way he offered that I had the thought creep in, Maybe it is my preaching!?].
I was happy for him, shared the possibility of my gifting him, “Don, that’s terrific. I can give you three cassettes of my sermons to help the evaluation.”
He spoke in a heartbeat, “Nah, not three. I’ll only need one.”
Through the humor there is an abiding truth. Recently one of our church members, having completed a licensed ministry training program, shared, “Ah, my last class was on preaching and the teacher said, again and again, using great emphasis, ‘Don’t be BORING.’”
I thought, through that insightful and relevant counsel, How do we know we aren’t boring? What are some tricks in the preaching trade that can keep us from that margin of losing people?
One of my long-term clergy buddies used to counsel, “Mark, don’t fret if someone falls asleep during a sermon…just consider that you’re a cure for his or her insomnia.”
Another humorous moment, but the truth is deeper.
Friends…new friends and parishioners at an alive and energetic and creative place called First Christian Church in San Marcos…what is this preaching world all about?
Now walking [and honestly dancing now and then] into my 44th year of ordained ministry, I still consider the sermon a centering point in worship and consider worship a holy time when the congregation gathers to be fed and to be helped and to be guided and to be encouraged in their journey of discipleship.
Thinking and praying and preparing the sermon is a main stream that flows through me each week. It’s not a trickling creek [or “crick” as often is mentioned in Texas], or a small puddle gathering moss. Not at all.
Please know that I will do my best to have the sermon get connected. Very connected. And, at times, the sermon may move from preachin’ to meddlin’. If it does, as I hope you will, deal with it! For I never mean the sermon to scold and threaten. Rather, I mean the sermon to inform and once in a while, especially when God takes over, to inspire and maybe bring a “Wowza” a moment or two.
As you will find, I am not a “pulpit guy.” Rather, I want to be standing, Bible in one hand, and mentally the church roster and morning paper in the other, to share how the particular Bible passage can be part of our world, helping us live with more resolve and insight and hope.
Hope. That’s such a key need. And a purpose. We need hope and the purpose of a sermon is to give us cause for hope.
I make one promise during our shared interim ministry. I will not preach a canned sermon. Honestly? I haven’t had a sermon manuscript for over 14 years. Instead, I ponder and reflect what the biblical narrative’s saying to us, and then hope the verbs get conjugated and the thoughts flow and are not dashes here and there, ending up in some silly cul-de-sac.
What that might mean is what gets preached at 8:30 a.m. won’t be cloned at 10:30 a.m. Oh, the biblical narrative will hold, the main points and a few stories be retained, but when I’m preaching, I do my best to “feel” the congregation’s spirits and needs, and if I’m “feeling” another point to be shared, so be it.
So, here we go.
This Sunday, July 5, for our first “official worship together,” I’ll take a run at the Mark 6:1-6 text and try to figure out why a preacher is without honor in his own country. Never preached that text in Portland, Oregon, my hometown. But, as I learn from the text, it has nothing to do with being a home-town-guy and everything to do with….
Oops, don’t want to play that card…see you Sunday…to see if you can figure out how to finish that last sentence.
I’m enthused to be here…and if you nod off this Sunday or subsequent Sundays during the sermon, I won’t say a word about insomnia.
Grace and Hope and Peace to each of us.
See you this Sunday,
Dr. Mark Henry Miller
July 2, 2009
Mark welcomes your input and hopes that you will .
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