I say the word "sermon" and you say...?
I say the word "preacher" and you say...?
Are sermons those experiences that rank up there as the greatest, most significant of your life?
Are preachers those women and men who are most full of inspiration and revolution?
Ha!
And yet, Rob Bell insists, the world needs great sermons and great preachers!
We all know what a bad sermon sounds like, we know what lousy preachers sound like - there are plenty of them out there. But what makes for a great sermon? What could make sermon's great? For those that preach them, for those that hear them, what should be our grid for discerning what makes for a great sermon?
Rob Bell, a preacher from Grand Rapids, casts a vision for sermons that are...
Performance art - they move people, capture their imagination...
Guerrilla theatre - they surprise people, startle people, provoke people...
Evocative actions - they point to something else, they use everything to reveal...
Sermons are witness: there is something in the gut that must be shared...
Sermons are a reminder that this is NOT the way the world is supposed to be...
Sermons are an implicit critique on the way things are now...
Sermons are a first punch...
Sermons are an invitation: NOW is the day to change...
Sermons are about a return...
Sermons are fresh word about reality...
Sermons are...
Provocation
Loaded Language
Warning
Sub-version: there is another story about this world we live in...
Sermons open up possibilities to mis-interpretation and revolution!
I'm at a preaching conference - and since it's hosted by Rob Bell, it's not quite like any I've ever been to. And I've been to a few in my quick decade as a preacher. The event is billed as: Poets, Prophets & Preachers: Reclaiming the Art of the Sermon
Sunday night was the opening salvo of ideas about what the sermon could be in our world today. Rob does a skillful job of reframing traditional ideas of sermons, opening a can of worms with new ideas, and passionately inviting people to give their best to using sermons for God's redemptive work in this world. My kind of guy.
All of this to say: my sermon this Sunday is going to be super awesome because I was at this conference!
Hmph...
Who knows how awesome it will be; I do know that I'll be trying some new things and retrying some old things. And keeping in mind the grand vision of what sermons could be for our world today...
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