Hi Web Fiends and Friends. I will try to be writing as regularly as possible. I have friends and colleagues who are full-time pastors, seminary professors, dads and husbands all at the same time and manage their time well (From my perspective) and still write blogs so I am confident that I have enough time, more than enough in fact to regularly contribute to what I imagine will be a great site at a future date.
I am currently gathering data for my M.Th dissertation which is a 20,000 word paper. My topic will be on Homiletics. This is the techinical, academic term for preaching. My study is intended to research how we who believe we are called to preach can effectivley reach a generation that is longer logos-centric (Word Oriented) but is ikon-centric (Image-Oriented). What value is preaching in a world where we retain very little of what we hear, use movies and TV shows to interpret our lives instead of an ancient text, and are more interested in our own personal narratives than we are in an overarching meta-narrative (Big Story) that purports to be the only true story there is? Hmnnn? Should I just give up my calling and sell used cars? Me thinks not!
I am convinced that the Biblical story is the only one that makes complete sense of my story and everyone elses story as well. There I said it. Whew! The pressure I was under. Yes. I believe the Bible is 100 % accurate and that it tells us of the Love of God towards a fallen world who does not desreve this love yet gets it anyway. I believe that preaching is a critical, crucial, and essential means to tell people this big story of Gods love and form them spiritually into the image or Ikon of God--Jesus Christ! Of course there are other means in addition to preaching that effect this transformation, means that work interdependantly with preaching but my point is that preaching is still effective, life changing, and spiritually alive.
More to come Webheads! Stay tuned.
A La Carte (May 14)
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[image: A La Carte Collection cover image]Angels / Dimensions / A Christian
view of UFOs / Having a baby has slowed me down / What you can't give your
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2 days ago
2 comments:
Here's the question, though. Do you feel that the expectation to preach every Sunday morning can be detrimental to a pastor's best use of time and energy? How often would you preach if the expectation was that you preached when you had something God was pressuring you to say? Every Sunday? Once or twice a month? Every day? The answer would be different for every pastor, I'm sure, but I just wonder if that Every-Sunday expectation puts more pressure on our pastors to speak than the Holy Spirit does.
And if that is the case, is there an openness in the congregation for that pastor to focus on something else on a Sunday when he does not feel impelled to speak, or does he feel that he must speak in order to earn his paycheck?
Hi Questions. Thanks for your thought-provoking reply to my post. I believe that if a pastor is allowed the time to embrace Gods words during the week then he would have something to say on Sundays to the assembled people on behalf of God. Its less an issue of whether or not "I" have something to say as it is one of God saying something and He has given us 66 books full of His sayings. There is plenty to say.
The danger then is that during the week the pastor is taxed with meetings, management, and other things that rob him of the time necessary to be in scripture and experience the burden of what God says.
However it is certainly a fight of faith to see Sunday and all that goes with it (Not only as pastors but as members as well) as something plastic and routine.
Still, in my own heart I intentionally SEEK as many opportunities to preach and teach as possible not only at my own church but at others as well and not for pay. If its there its there but if not...oh well.
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