Being at college is good for me - though sometimes at one in the morning while working on a paper I might not think so. My thinking, my feelings, my theology, my understanding ... all of this and more is constantly called into question and given room to grow.
And so grow in preaching I am trying. Took a Creative Homiletics class last semester (another way of saying creative preaching) and through it explored many new, inovative and contemporary forms and styles of preaching. It was one of my favourite classes so far, totally engaging.
Trouble is though that perhaps as a full-time pastor in a church the time required to try some of these new styles and techniques is slightly lacking. Talking to my pastors, while there are some things they would love to try ... just finding the hours to prepare a sermon in their normal style or way can be difficult enough.
That's one of the reasons I love being at college. Who but a student might have time to try something different, knowing that if it goes horrendously wrong, then there is still a pastor above you to mop up the mess (and take the blame!). So when one of the pastors asked me a couple of weeks back to preach this coming Sunday morning to help them out I jumped at the chance. Not been preaching much recently so any chance I get is a welcome oppertunity ... but as its my home church its also an amazing oppertunity to try something new.
Am trying an adapted version of round-table preaching, or collaborative preaching as it's also sometimes known. Basically the preacher meets with a small group of folks in the congregation who have also wrestled with the passage to be preached and together they discuss it. The preacher (or someone else) takes notes, and out of the discussion the main points to address and tackle in the sermon emerge. Experiences other than merely the preachers are discussed and revealed, all to the benefit of the whole.
Now for a preacher as I discovered this can mean giving up some control, as well as not jumping in with all the exegetical stuff you may know. But it is a worth-while experience, especially if we say that all can not only read but be part of the process of interpreting the scriptures.
And so in an adapted form I have gathered a small group together that have been wrestling with Matthew 5:1-16. I told them it would be an easy passage to begin with, but as we discovered it may not be as easy the first glance tells us ... after all who fancies being persecuted. But in our wrestling and discussing we met with each other and God and came away feeling encouraged and energised. We met in Starbucks, in the middle of the town centre, sitting in nice comfortable seats by the window in the middle of a bustling cafe and shopping mall, with open bibles, open hearts and at times open mouths. And in the midst of it all I got a real sense of the presence of Jesus right there with us, as if He were sitting there not only listening to us, but watching the people passing by.
Tomorrow the sermon that is a result of it will be preached and I really believe that God has things to say to us at EMBC through the passage we'll be looking at. As I sat back in Starbucks on Thursday preparing though I was struck by another thought. The sermon is for Christians primarily, and there is nothing wrong with that. The purpose and function of it is to encourage them, and again there is nothing wrong with that. But as I sat and typed away, again in a comfortable seat, again in the window, again stopping to watch the people passing by, I wondered what kind of different sermon I would be writing if those that I had engaged in conversation with had not been Christian. And I wondered what God would want to speak to the people that were in the cafe where I was preparing. As I wondered that I was filled by an intense love (only word to describe it) and desire to tell them this is how God feels about them, and that he longs to have a relationship with them where they know Him as He knows them.
Tomorrow the folks at EMBC will hear (I pray and sense) God remind them that they are (not might be or if they do this will be) salt and light. If we lived in that identity I wonder how many more people in Starbucks would know there is a God in Heaven who loves them and died for them ... I wonder if I really lived in that identity how many more people would know. And that thought re-challenges me as we end the Just Walk Across the Room teaching.
It was a good and helpful experiment for me ... watch this space to see how Sunday goes ...
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