Another asbojesus offering that's given me a bit of a reality check. I'm preaching next Sunday for the 1st time since I finished at my previous placement church last Easter, and as well as the regular congregation some fellow students from Ridley and a member of staff are going to be there. We'll then get together at some point for them to give me feedback on my sermon. Hope I provoke a better reaction than those above!The cartoon has set me thinking though - as preachers are we called to constantly reinvent the wheel so to speak? Do we need to constantly find new things to speak about? In fact can we? Or is it more about getting the same messages and challenges across but at the same time being innovative, inventive, situationally relevant etc. in the way we do it, finding ways of speaking to people who've been sitting in the pews for many years as well as those sitting there for the 1st time? Do we have to accept that we can't please / speak relevantly to everyone, or is that being too defeatist and not trusting God and his work in and through us enough? This is tough and challenging stuff! Time to stop before I scare myself too much...
2 comments:
Good questions, Simon. And lots of possible answers, I guess, that will depend partly on your view of the importance of the Word. I', preaching (3 times) this Sunday too and have ended up going on the epistle (somewhat to my surprise). I don't know where my sermons come from - I start out writing (after good Ridley-style preparation)thinking I know where they are going, having lived with the text for some days, and then find that they go somewhere different. And yet usually someone will say to me afterwards that it hit their spot or itch, that it was what they needed to hear. I would like to think that it is all a gift of the Spirit rather than inexperience and sloppy preparation... I find myself getting quite passionate about scripture in Sunday's sermon so goodness knows what reaction with will get in our non-evangelical churches. When we preach we don't know who God is speaking to through the readings and us. You can assess a sermon on technical grounds - length, use of images/story, exegesis and so on. But you can't really assess it on movement of the Spirit (or however you put it)- the God bit. So relax and preach the sermon that you have to preach. The feedback will be useful, kind and affirming. And, having heard you preach, you have nothing to worry about. Go for it, brother!
have a good one! just make sure you leave the 'gods mouthpiece' product at home!
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