So I’ve spent a few posts reflecting on preaching recently, must of it a critique of what we’ve done before, and trying to rethink preaching.
- The Flipped Sermon
- Rethinking Preaching: Seminary Killed my Style – Now What?
- Rethinking Preaching: Monological vs Dialogical Preaching
- Rethinking Preaching: PechaKucha Preaching
But what if nothing had been around before? What if preaching and the field of homiletics didn’t exist? What if no one had ever heard a sermon before? Something went awry during the Reformation, we never inherited the teaching-style of proclamation, never thought about someone standing up and proclaiming the word of God in the fashion that we have all become accustomed to. Work with me here…I know it’s a stretch.
So you and a group of people get together. There are some parishioners and some pastors. Some professors, teachers, grocery-store baggers and stay at home moms and dads. There are some youth, preschoolers and a few elderly folks. And your goal is to come up with a way in which you engage and interact with scripture and people’s lives.
Essentially, you’re given a blank slate. A chance to brainstorm and come up with a new way.
What does that look like? What tools would you use? How might proclamation of the word of God look in 2013, if you were starting from scratch today? Would you essentially end up with something similar to what you do now? Or would you feel more freedom to go in a different direction?
