by Lon on January 10, 2008
This past Sunday I introduced our church to r.e.a.l. disciplines. This is something I adapted from Michael Frost’s BELLS and Neil Cole’s LTG’s.
r.e.a.l. is an acronym for Reflect, Eat, Act, and Listen. Our goal is not simply to be a community of faith, but a community of practice.
What does it mean to incarnate (flesh out) Jesus in our daily lives?
What does it mean to begin living a life of spiritual discipline that leads to wholeness and greater freedom?
Below was the message powerpoint as well as the handout
Mosaic R.E.A.L. Disciplines
by Lon on November 23, 2007
In our seminary, expository narrative preaching is emphasized quite a bit.
Where traditional sermons have multiple points that are supported in a variety of ways, in narrative preaching the stories and metaphors are the points. The key is that with any good ’story’ tension is created and held for impact until nearly the end of the sermon.
I’ve been thinking about this ‘methodology’ and I think it can be taken a step further.
There is… umm… a sexual art-form known as tantric (I had to look it up to verify) that is known to be a spiritual encounter involving a prolonged engagement where tension is held to the end, but there may also be ‘releases’ throughout the experience as well.
I think this form of preaching might be more helpful in our culture of short attention spans while weaving a captivating story till the grand finale… Tantric Preaching. You heard it here first.
by Lon on November 20, 2007
Interesting conversation with a friend of mine last week.
Often we find ourselves sharing about how we’re absolutely loving where we are in life and the things that we’re involved with. However, this time I guess I was whining a bit about how I had to preach this past sunday, and then had to preach again on monday as well, and on and on.
And he said to me, ‘you sound like it’s more of a pain than a privilege’.
Right there it stopped me in my tracks and brought me back into the presence of God. It is a privilege.
You know how when you get so busy, it can suck the joy and the life right out of even what you love? That was me.
It’s such a privilege to have the opportunities to do what I do. I’m just so glad I’ve got people reminding me, because I know I’m bound to forget again.
by Lon on October 31, 2007
I’m preaching through a two week message on Ephesians 2:10 – the idea of being God’s living artwork. This past Sunday I passed out play-doh to each person in the community and had them shape and express thoughts through them.
I also pointed out how if they looked up close, they’ll find their fingerprints all over the play-doh and how if we take the time to look up close within others, and within ourselves, we’ll find the fingerprints of God. It was a neat tactile experience.
Of course my next thought was, how will I top this next week? … and therein lies the temptation to perform.
Hearing and sharing the voice of God has so little to do with performing. I pray that all of us who lead might not obsess over ‘taking it up a notch’, but allow God to take further residence within our souls this week.
by Lon on October 16, 2007
I’m surprised at how much I’ve been blogging on preaching over the last year. It’s an incredibly interesting art-form, and at the same time a very odd thing to be spending your time doing.
Yesterday I preached for my current advanced preaching class… a few thoughts.
Preaching remains a love / hate thing for me. Preaching in a classroom setting, amongst peers I respect with evaluation pens up drives me a bit bonkers inside.
As much as I’m getting a bit more use to preaching, I still need to pee three, four times before I speak. I’m not sure if it’s nerves or “the spirit”
I spoke on 2 Samuel 11-12, which encompassed almost 60 verses… I don’t think I’ve ever presented that many verses from a single section of the Scriptures… it was incredibly challenging.
I took solace in the truth that You can never speak on everything in it’s entirety anyways.
Although everyone was assigned with narrative expository preaching, it was amazing how many unique styles that still generated amongst classmates.
Preaching guru Haddon Robinson demands that all messages have a single clear ‘big idea’. I’m not sure I had one, I was hoping to instill a ‘big feeling’ instead.
by Lon on September 28, 2007
I’m in a preaching seminar right now by Kent Anderson (of preaching.org and wrote choosing to preach). He just shared this lovely quote from godisamyth.com
Please do not pity me. I enjoy my life very much, even though you may think it is empty and worthless. I do not hate life as you might. You do not know me, you do not know how I live my life. You do not know how I feel, you do not know how I think. You just do not know, and I’m sorry if it bothers you so very much that I can have a full and enjoyable life without your god.
Please do not preach at me. I have read your bible and I have gone to your churches and I DO NOT BELIEVE IN YOUR GOD. To me, your entire belief system is just another myth. I don’t care if you think I’m going to burn in your hell. If you absolutely must think that – so be it, but please do not bring it up with me. You may or may not know where you will go when you die, I know where I will go when I die, I will not change my mind about this.
If you do preach at me – please do not think that you are any different from the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of other christians who have preached at me. Do you think YOU would change your mind and worship a different god just because a hundred of its followers all preached the same thing at you? Or would you just find each and everyone of those people rude, and then continue to believe as you do?
Everybody has the right to believe what they believe. NOBODY has the right to push their beliefs on their fellow beings. To preach at someone who does not wish to be preached at is RAPE. Not rape of the body, but rape of the mind and of the soul. There is no excuse for it.
