blog thief

i just ripped this from brad whom i've never met. i like. its a vibe that kelly and i have been rumenating on for a while. its long, but well worth the read. enjoy.

Monday, December 08, 2003

SOME THOTS ON 'PREACHING'

scotty asked me to read a blog discussion he's been in about (re)definitions of community, preaching, and such. more on that perhaps soon. at the moment, i have some initial thoughts about preaching and whether it's a lost art, or an art we should lose.

not quite that simple of a choice, even if i'm the one setting up the question in the first place.

anyway, an initial thought: in my range of experiences, traditional preaching is usually an abstract "conversation" without a concrete context and so excludes people from the circle of application, or a practical "conversation" that is too concrete and so excludes people from the circle of listening. that's the big picture. some unpacking:

you can go info-download style, in which the preacher presents information that supposedly all hearers can use specifically, and application is usually left up to each listener. problem is, this is usually abstract and theoretical input, and it tells what to do without showing how to do it. and so, if a listener hasn't been discipled how to discern their own context of problems, needs, etc., how will they make a relevant application? if we've got blind spots, they're by definition things we can't see, so (unless the Holy Spirit really gives us our sight on an otherwise blind-spotted/peripheral-vision issue in our lives) how can we do anything with theoretically relevant material, even if from Scripture? i've spent a lot of time in such churches, and learned a lot of truly important facts and details from/about God's Word. but sometimes discipleship becomes all about what you know, not what you live.

or you can go seeker-sensitive style, in which the preacher presents predigested practical information on generic human needs or specific personal problems. in either case, it's generally more concrete in its application than the info-download style. but when you get this concrete, you also exclude people whose circumstances/context don't fit. for instance, how many times have i been subjected to a lovely and practical multi-week series on marriage? how often do the married people have to listen to a lovely and practical multi-week series on singleness? i've been in these churches a lot too. after a year or two, every sermon seems like its about the same things, just slightly different personal/social problems. it's like a ken and barbie style show where they're put into different outfits over and over, but it's still ken and barbie. and seeker-sensitive churches seldom help the average congregant go on in discipleship to maturity. it's often 'maturity-lite' in its long-term impact, even if how we're living gets to look pretty good on the outside.

this is not a goldilocks and the three bears story where the first two beds are too hard, or too soft, and the third one is 'just right.' but here is a third option. someone in the diablog scotty mentioned talked about shifting from the word 'preached' to the word 'proclaimed.' when someone proclaims God's truths in a relational conversation (one-to-one or in a small group instead of from a pulpit to a congregation), i think it hits home far more often. i think that's because there's a built-in context in a conversation. either the proclaimer knows me, the real me, and what i need and seeks to connect me with truths that apply. or, because i know the proclaimer and care about him/her, that relational context motivates me to listen and grapple with applying what's being said.

perhaps the proclamation approach appeals more to those who desire community, because it keeps a relational context and cuts thru the crap a whole lot more. it makes sense as the core of discipleship, because it is direct, personalized, taken in relational context, is less easy to shrug off as if it doesn't apply when someone who knows you and your situation is speaking with you eye-to-eye. it's about truth and about living, not one or the other.

no wonder people are going into small groups or house churches or monastic structures or residential communities and such where this kind of proclamation brings a whole-grain bread of life to them, and eschewing or not chewing the wonder bread that's offered in the (typically) anonymous congregational setting. most of what is preached from info-download and seeker-sensitive pulpits is available in books or on tape. i'd rather spend my time in proclamation-oriented conversations with people who are aware of my context (personal history, current struggles, strengths and weaknesses, etc.), thank you very much.

i'm not sure proclamation is taught in seminary, though preaching is. preaching is more about developing your ability to speak and say something that's right for the listener. proclamation is more about developing your ability to listen and then say something that's relevant to the listener. if that's accurate, then perhaps there's hope that a congregational teacher can connect both proclamation by knowing the context of the listeners AND preaching by developing an engaging way to communicate, and it is more of a conversation.

but i think that's gonna be pretty hard to find. and i've had so much doctrinal info-downloads and recovery-oriented seeker-sentiments that i think i'll go for the conversation-in-context-and-community stuff for the time being.

hope that makes some sense, scotty, you rockin' disciple who loves Jesus with all your heart ...
Brad 4:02 PM
http://beyondposthuman.blogspot.com/