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Add Theater Class to Seminary Training

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I was reading this not so exciting article titled “Why ‘Boring’ Preachers should be Fired” and it stirred some old thoughts in my warped brain.

Before I get into my warped brain let me disclaimer that I do think some preachers should be allowed a graceful exit. They have in many cases served God’s ministry well and are probably in need of walking away to heal and be fed instead of being held to a commitment where they have to feed while being barren themselves. By ‘preachers’ I am also batching together a preacher, priest, pastor not just a teaching pastor whose only responsibility is to preach.

I used to constantly rib one of my pastors I had served with about showing me his MBA. He knew where this was headed so he’d respond with a “keep looking” or “I know, and they still hired me.” Because my point who on earth would hire someone and put them in charge of leading a 1.8 million dollar entity that didn’t have some business experience. Seems like an illogical hire all the way around. But we do it all the time. Yes, committee systems are there for a checks and balances, but time and again our congregations give so much of the daily business power to the pastors, who rarely have formal business training.

Sorry, getting off that soap box.

Back to original box..

Back in the day one got away with giving a good sermon through the oratory methods shown to us in academia. John Wesley had his book of sermons and had specific instructions of, “if you can’t give a decent sermon just read this and it will work” (or something to that account). So the bar for ‘presenting’ a sermon that would engage and stimulate was not much different than a university lecture. It would teach and give the listener something to think about & learn. Today though we have a culture that is so conditioned to learning through entertainment. We also call new learning methods ‘active learning’ or ‘discovery based learning’ the list can go on. Our seminaries teach preaching and I know they give classes on teaching styles and preparations. However, do we need to encourage our seminaries to require theater work so that our preachers can shift where they can preach with a little flare? Maybe a semester of improv would do nicely..

Anyways, just a thought to help those ‘boring’ preachers.

What Google Images Teaches Me about My Faith

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Maybe it is me, but I find myself troubled by the things that Google Image shows me about the faith that I claim. This is significant in my opinion because google will push those things that are referenced or used the most to the top because they have been deemed as having the most worth & credibility for that particular search. I would put the bible in this thought captured in image, but it is boringly predictable. So..

WORSHIP

I probably have the most issue with worship.. Seriously, these black silouette hands raised is the predominate image for worship?.. really?..

DOCTRINE

Doctrine doesn’t get a good rap with the image folks. It also gets mixed up with politics and other cultural items.. Is that telling us something?

GOD

I’m glad to know that God is pretty much the same yesterday, today and forever. Except for that muscle character HE is some nice shining lights with a white beard.

THEOLOGY

I must say, I liked the motivation theology poster a whole lot. contemplated making that my laptop wallpaper. It is intriguing the images constructed to try to explain theology. Throwing out the 10 commandments makes for a limited theology in ways, might not be a bad thing though.

PREACHER

This one kinda freaked me out…

PASTOR

I like the safe pastor look better.. Except for maybe that guy in the top right.. Or the movie Troy, not a very good movie.

BAPTISM

I suppose another arms up in the air type image is suitable. I did find that infant baptism rising to the top in so majority of images to be interesting. But maybe those are just baby dedications..

SERMON

I suppose with two or three Sermon on the Mount images we can call this legit. At least there isn’t a benny hinn pic.

PRAYER

Boy am I glad my mommy taught me to fold my hands together and hid in dark lit rooms because apparently that is the way to go about praying to God.

JUSTICE

The gothic nature of all these images has me shaking my head.. Maybe justice is just for goth people.

CHURCH

I like how there are no people in the churches. That’s nice.. Wait a second….

COMMUNION

I could have chosen Eucharist, but those results were too catholic. Reminds me of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. “You must choose wisely.” Looking at these, we seem to want to choose poorly.

Last but not least

JESUS

I like my white soft skinned Jesus. Especially the contemplative sensitive type. But when I go out on Friday night I want Buddy Christ!

NOTE: If you are curious, I didn’t do any scrolling for these. This is the first set of results in each case.

So what does this tell you about your faith?

 

the church sermon for a new era?

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via cartoonchurch.com

My friend Steve Wilke sent me this TED Talk asking for my opinion. So here goes..

The talk is given by Salman Khan who has started his own online academy of learning by putting videos of lessons online for people to see. He tells the story of how that got started and some of his thoughts on how this can, and should, affect future education.

I happen to think it is a fabulous idea & as with anything, it has me thinking of the church.

I began to think of some of the historic congregational traditions of the early american church was that after the sermons were given there was a time of question & answer. You can imagine for yourself the reasons for that practice. It was inevitably shuned and stopped. The Quakers have their “un-programmed” worship which people sit in silence and only when someone is inspired by ‘the light’ do they break the silence to speak. Others may stand and speak building off that theme, but they do not have to. That, and how Solomon’s Porch does their gathering, is about the closest practice to what I am suggest as an idea for a new way of spiritual formation through the practice of sermon.

What if, we put our sermons out into the digital sphere for our congregation to digest throughout the week, at their own pace. If you wanted you can send out a message and then some reading supplement later in the week. And then, during Sunday worship service instead of the preacher preaching, the preacher took questions to teach for clarification & challenge. The gathered community can participate bringing together the myriad of ideas they have been inspired by after reading the scriptures, listening to the pastor’s exegesis and/& sermon online. Who knows the power, or chaos, that would happen when 50, 200, 2000 come together prepared to share..

I don’t have a pulpit to practice from, but it would be a really awesome experiment. Maybe do it for a summer series or some challenging theological concept (like the trinity).

What thoughts might you have about this idea?

 

 

graphic via cartoon church