Community Preaching

As I mentioned earlier, Santa Amazon delivered a box load of great new reads for Christmas. Yesterday I started reading Doug Pagitt's "Preaching Re-imagined". This has special significance for me as a pastor.

My eyes were nearly flying over the words while my hands trembled attempting to turn the pages fast enough. What Doug has to say is so refreshing to a pastor very frustrated for the last few years with preaching. While I love public speaking (when I have a clear presentation in my head that I'm fired up about), I too often not only struggle to know what to share, I ever wonder what good it does. What difference does it make? Why do we do it the way we do? Why does one person (or a few select "talented" ones) always do the sharing of God's word? Does God only speak through professionals (plenty of Scripture stories to argue that idea).

I'm nowhere near done with the book. I'm just pumped about what I've read so far. Doug identifies the need for preaching (defined as proclaiming). However, he takes issue with the way we most often do it. Speaching (a term he coins) is the act of proclaiming only through one way speech monolgues. These are given regularly from one person, prepared in isolation from others, given to people known largely on an acquaintance level, presented in a manner that keeps the presenter in control of what's said, keeps listeners passive, unintentionally trains the Body of Christ to think that God primarily speaks only through certain people, creates a desire for ever "better" presentations, and does little to encourage transformational relationships!

Doug suggests a more conversational approach called progressional dialogue. This is where preaching grows out of community conversation. It's also where the act of preaching is seen more as conversation amongst the Body that enriches each other. This form assumes that God's Spirit is active in each member of the Body and that we can all participate in proclaiming God's good work from the perspective of each of our own experiences, thus adding a level of depth and richness that one person can never provide.

This has my excited creative juices flowing like a river. Today I will be attempting to apply this. I'll talk a bit about this whole idea. Then, I'll be asking a couple of people to read 2 different Scriptural stories (Creation account in Genesis and Incarnation account in John 1). After that, I will begin opening the floor for the sharing of triggers (things that the Scripture brings to mind-stories, experiences, impressions, longings, questions, etc.). I'm excited to learn what God may teach me from other people today.

Anyway-I'm giving it a shot...