Preaching Re-Imagined

It’s good to get back after a great weekend of both rest and renewal. I dug into Doug Pagitt’s book “Preaching Re-Imagined”, and I am loving the book after finishing the book’s first twenty chapters. I have to say I’m connecting with it a great deal more than Doug’s first book “Church Re-Imagined”. I appreciate Doug’s call to rethink the preaching experience because I’ve been wrestling with it myself for the past couple of years. I’ve struggled with it on two counts. First, I’ve wrestled with the Reform notion that the sermon should be the high point of the service. I believe very strongly that it’s wrong for a worship facilitator to assume such a thing. I’ve known for a long time that there are a variety of things that can most strongly resonate with a member of the worshipping community. For some it can be a moment during the sharing of Joys and Concerns; for another it might be the time during the Children’s Sermon; for another it might be a verse of a beloved hymn. For these reasons, I’ve worked to create a well rounded worship experience as opposed to a sermon-centered worship experience. Second, I’ve also struggled with the traditional notion of a sermon: one person taking an active role (i.e. the pastor speaking); everyone else assuming a passive role (i.e. the congregation listening). Doug’s clear call to create preaching moments that are interactive was right up my alley. Doug calls his alternative to the traditional preaching moment “progressional dialogue”. Progressional dialogue involves “the intentional interplay of multiple viewpoints that leads to unexpected and unforeseen ideas”. Doug adds that it “means moving forward into new thoughts, not digging into pre-determined positions.” Progressional dialogue also means “being open to – even expecting – change, just as those we’re in conversation with are changed” (54). Exciting stuff! So how does Doug create such experiences? He does this in at least two ways. First, he creates an opportunity during the week for interested members of the congregation to gather and chew on the scriptural text for Sunday’s service. I tried this my first year at Mountain View. I’m going to resurrect the notion again this fall on Tuesday evenings. This invites individuals into the worship experience during the days leading up to worship. The new part of Doug’s vision (at least for me) is to create opportunities for dialogue/exploration during the message. I haven’t done much with this in the past, but Doug’s vision has me thinking about new ways of trying this in the future as well. One other thing that was particularly helpful for me was Doug’s distinction between sermons that aim for life-application vs. proclamations that target the Gospel's implication on your life. The difference? “Application is about how a piece of information fits into your life. Implication is not about fitting; it’s about redefining” (102). Much to think about and digest here. I’ll finish Doug’s book tomorrow. Only 2 ½ days until our trip to New York City. Can you tell I’m excited. Til next time…