another thought that just came up is maybe it has a lot to do with the perception of the preacher. I’ve been mostly in low-church circles – where we’re low in the forms of doing church and trying to raise the bar in what it means to be a disciple or a priesthood of all believers… but there are plenty of traditions where the preacher/bishop/priest is next to God himself. I would assume if that was my mindset, I would leave church feeling like I encountered God, and feel the burden to act upon what’s been proclaimed.

and maybe for me it’s just the structure/form/frequency thing of typical preaching. especially when the ‘sermon’ is considered the apex of worship in most protestant roots. My life has been changed many times by great preaching and proclamation… maybe when it’s when I hear my own words reduced to taglines at times that I feel people have no idea what a journey it took to arrive at my conclusions…

I also feel that in the OT and NT there were more opportunities for interaction than the closing song and prayer we typically default to. People asked Jesus questions afterwards, paul’s letters were often addressed to entire communities, and people were able to stone steven after preaching…

anyhow, now i’m rambling… i’d love to hear how others struggle through with these concepts too.

this past sunday, I just spent a few minutes ‘proclaiming’ the centrality of the scripture and ‘preached’ on different ways I personally engage the scriptures, and just let people loose in groups to encounter god for themselves, and then share back with the community.

good thoughts, thanks.