i rant on…

(Please forgive my looong post. Maybe you can come back occasionally to take it in small bites)

Preaching, as you’ve undoubtedly detected, is taking a lot of my interest these days. I feel I could simply rewrite Doug Pagitt’s book, Preaching Reimagined, in my own words because so much of it resonates with me. Maybe in time I’ll look back and say, “Well, that was just one of my over-excited little diversions in life. Glad I got over that!” But, since I’m in the midst of my little rampage, I’ll keep “carrying on”. I finished the book yesterday and here’s a sampling of quotes that grabbed me.

I have seen several attempts at “interactive” sermons that fall far short of progressional dialogue, primarily because they were still framed around the idea that there are experts and then there are the rest of us. P. 198

This statement made me wonder about last weekend’s experience. Did I feel my preaching experiment was a flop because, although I was attempting to do something interactive and relational, I was partly doing it within the framework of the in-charge, in-power, up-front speaker. In short, I was imposing something relational, rather than inviting and seeking the other “partner’s” permission? It’s kind of like marching into a theatre and telling everyone to have a conversation with their fellow attendees. It wouldn’t work too well because people don’t come expecting to relate-they come to be entertained.

How does one solicit a church’s permission to be more relational in preaching style? I’m not sure...yet!

More quotes:

There are whole generations of people who’ve been taught a sermonized version of faith from the time they were children. As a result they’ve developed a taste for sermonization… P. 191

…the…problem is that speaching has led a great majority of people in the church to believe that they have nothing to say. P177

The idea…that only a trained professional can speak about God with any kind of authority goes against nearly everything we find in Scripture. P. 153

…just as people have been successfully socialized to sit still and be quiet in church, we can show them how to have constructive meaningful dialogue. P. 175

We need to create environments where having people contribute is not an interruption to what we are doing but an addition to who we are becoming. P. 171 (Bold emphasis mine)

Imagine the response if people in our churches believed their gifts, ideas, and experiences were as inspired by God as those of the preacher. P. 153

I imagine churches that see themselves as more than the context for speaching. The idea that church is a once-a-week event dismantles everything the gospel calls us to be about. When the worship event centers on speaching, the message to the people is clear: The focus of our life together is this 20-minute segment; the rest is gravy. But when preaching becomes an act of community formation, there is an implicit invitation for participation in the full life of the community. It’s a clear signal that we are about more than teaching, telling, and learning about God. We are about living in the story of God in all times and in all places. P. 169 (Bold emphasis mine)

…speaching is not the ultimate expression of preaching, and preaching is not the ultimate endeavor of the church. P 121

…know that the invitation to ministry is an invitation to join in the work of God and not to create it; God is at work with or without our sermons. Know that our preaching matters, but it isn’t our central contribution; more lives will be changed by the relationships created and lived out in our communities than by what we say in some sermon. P122

The purpose of preaching isn’t’ to make the Word of God easy; it’s to help people delve into faith more fully, more deeply.

Education theory tells us people really only learn out of frustration---the frustration that they don’t know but need to, the frustration that life isn’t working but there could be a better way. Frustration is not a bad thing—it’s a necessary thing. It’s what pushes us on. P. 101

Maybe my frustration with last weekend’s escapade was a tool that will continue to drive me further in seeking to create environments of dialogue? I also am becoming aware that I need to be okay with other’s being frustrated. I shouldn’t always take frustration to mean I need to do something to fix someone so that I can feel better about myself. Frustration may be exactly what some people need in church and spirituality! Frustration by both the pastor and the congregation may be an important part of moving to more relational preaching!

Finally speaking of the way things can be for the regular “speacher”:

…the pastor is supposed to bear all the burden of having something fresh to share each week. This pressure begins to erode the soul of the preacher like waves on a rock. ... There’s only so much a person can take of being the lone voice of faith…Something is tragically amiss when the life-giving gospel becomes hazardous to the lives of the people most engaged in it. P. 145

The scribbled comments inserted by me in my copy of the book next to these last statements were AMEN and YUP.

For the time being, rant is done!