I’m preaching next Sunday, September 6, in the middle of our co-pastor’s series on “Rethink Church.” The United Methodist currently has a new campaign going on entitled “RETHINK CHURCH” and we’re playing with that this month at Asbury UMC. Out of all the ways that we definitely need to be rethinking church, I think the sermon is one that could definitely use a lot of work. And I’d like to preach a sermon on “rethinking church” by trying some new things when it comes to the sermon itself, including the preparation.
In the past year, I’ve tried an experiment in collaborative preaching and one open-source sermon, and I’d love to do something similar for this sermon. The lectionary texts for September 6 aren’t really doing anything for me, so although I normally stick with the lectionary, I think I’ll be looking for new texts. So – I’ll be writing the sermon here on this blog post. Be sure and come back, leave your comments and let me know what you think.
But first, here are two ways you can help:
- I need some suggestions for scripture passages. When you think about scripture that might lend itself to the idea of “Rethink Church” – what comes to mind? I suppose there is always the Luke 5:37-38 passage about new wine in old wineskins, but I’d love to know if anyone has any other ideas.
- I would also love some ideas for making this sermon more “outside-the-box” that you might have. I have some ideas but…what do you think?
Let’s Rethink Church together…