Missionary Methods: John's or Ours?

Nearing the end of his gospel, the beloved disciple writes

^20:30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Plenty of people take verse 31 as a purpose statement for the whole book, and rightly so.

Yet most popular preaching I've heard on John uses this verse in the following way.
1. John wrote this so you would believe.
2. I know how to get you to believe (runs through five spiritual laws, two ways to live etc)

Yet John didn't write 'Five Spiritual Laws', or 'Two ways to live'.
He wrote John.
with all it's weird bits, with all it's prayers, with all it's concentration on the Jews and Jewish festivals and Temple and comparison to Moses........ so that you would believe.
To miss that is to miss the potential for the actual book to actually bring people to belief

Sex means something

Other than a pleasurable experience, sex means something. As I've preached through 1 Corinthians 6-7 I've realised how few people - in our churches - believe sex means something.

I mean that the bonding which sex brings is simply not believed. Sometimes people accept it within the context of coupledom but think singles can have 'pleasurable experience' without meaning. Others think that sex always is about the 'pleasurable experience' and that's what gives the bonding, not some tangible transformation that happens through sexual activity.

I've asked around and most people agree their non-Christian friends almost universally think this. Although some married non-Christians still don't think its right to share those experiences outside the marriage.

Two conclusions come from this. First people hear the prohibition against sexual immorality as an anti-pleasure anti-experience stance. But if bonding is true then the prohibition is against self-destruction and other person abuse.

Second, I'm not sure people in our churches understand 'the two will become one flesh'. (1 Cor 6:16) Consequently a key image in the doctrine of union with Christ is not understood. And therefore people do not understand the possible intimacy that exists between two people 'in Christ'.

Thus when I preach 1 Cor 7:38 'he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better' it is simply unlivable. Who believes marriage is right but unmarriage is better? Certainly not people who haven't grasped their current relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Simply put, 1 Cor 7 makes no sense if 6:12-20 is not understood and believed.

Thoughts from pastoral experience in this...

Principles for preaching- don't explain too much

The Bible contains many different types of speech.
Unfortunately, most of our sermons are dominated by 'explanation'.
The frightening thing about preaching is that if you really boiled down the important bit you had to say, and then added on explanation of anything the congregation REALLY didn't know already, most sermons would be about three minutes long.
What we usually do is fill up another 20 minutes with more explanation.
So here is a crazy idea to try with your next sermon.
Only explain something if the congregation really can't understand it otherwise.
Once you know your points , find the most appropriate expression, and save explanation for what needs explaining.

So, think of the point you want to make.
Would a question make it better?
A preacher I knew, once preached his whole sermon as a story. You would think it wouldn't work, but as I talked to each of the congregation, they got all the points, even though he hadn't given them in propostitions
What a precious delight when a preacher revels in his words!
Who Savours: enjoys, appreciates, relishes, delights in, partakes of, drools over, luxuriates in, enjoys to the full, smacks their lips over.... Savour the flavour of each mouthful
Praise Jesus for his work in that preacher!
"Sing a joyful song to the Lord all the earth"
But my tears of frustration, a never-ending empty lament for the over-explainer.
You! you preacher, you are guilty of this accusation
"Won't somebody please make him stop, I beg you"
I must confess, however, that this list is an ideal for me, and not a reality
Lord, make me a better preacher, I pray
But my weakness doesn't absolve you of this charge
I exhort you, Stop explaining!
And sometimes even just..be silent...........

Jesus blood never failed me yet: a new year reflection and prayer

For New Years Eve this year, I intend to have a time of silent reflection and prayer. To look back on the year that has passed, and God's faithfulness in it. And to look forward to another year of his faithful love.

I'm thinking of using Gavin Bryar's minimalist orchestral piece "Jesus blood never failed me yet" to accompany and focus the time.
The original (1971) is about 25 minutes, the extended version 74mins (1993). I like the discipline of the hour (and it finishes with Tom Waits!), and may play the Jesus film silently in the background.

Anyway, here is a five minute condensed version to whet your appetite.

Reflections on Holy Communion 7

"And nothing shall be proclaimed or published in the Church during the time of Divine Service, but by the minister: nor by him any thing but what is prescribed in the Rules of this Book, or enjoined by the Queen, or by the Ordinary of this place"

Sometimes at my church, the announcements can go for 20 minutes, occasionally 30.

I guess it is important that people know what is going on through the week.
Still, announcements generally take up more time than prayer.
Is it possible we have got our priorities the wrong way around?

Principles for preaching- mix well

Every now and then I listen to one of my sermons (off the internet). Often as I listen I think, all the ingredients are there, but it just hasn't come together as well as I hoped. I need to add a little time in my preparation for kneading.

Sometimes I make bread. It is fairly easy. You just throw together some flour, some yeast, some water and a pinch of salt. Yet if I simply threw the slurry of ingredients into the oven, the bread wouldn't be very tasty. What is required for bread is kneading.
Punching and pulling the ingredients so that the gluten in the flour binds with other glutens, so that it becomes rich in connections, fibrous, dense and stretchy.

I need to knead my sermons.

What might that mean?
Well for the current one I'm listening to, I set up really good catchphrase in the introduction. (The story of the boy and the Zen master from Charlie Wilson's War, with the catchphrase 'We'll see', to lead into the great reversal that will come at Jesus return).
Anyway, listening to the sermon, I realised that I could have added this short catchphrase into every point and illustration I had, but instead I left it to the end to return to it.
Knead away to make those connections.

Other times it works the other way. I make a point three quarters of the way through the sermon, and I realise that if I had worded my introduction slightly differently, the connection between them would be clearer. Or if I change my introduction slightly it can cover all the points I want to make in the sermon. Often you think you are trying to do one thing in an element of a sermon, but there are surprising connection with other parts. Doing a little kneading allows each part of the sermon to have maximum payoff, maximum resonance with the whole.
Knead away, so that the language from all the ingredients bleed into each other to make one tasty meal.

Going through this process of kneading often means there are large chunks of text that I must, and happily can, throw out. As each 'ingredient' is used to interpret and reinforce the others, I can be far more economical with my language.

Kneading means your sermon approaches poetry.

"What the reader craves, and I've spoken here already about the reader's primacy, are beautiful accidents, surprise and astonishment in the poem, doors opening outward to true vistas for the first time. Something built up from within, not merely extracted from the exterior. The connective tissue is the evanescent need to become part of something that is larger than humans or mere language, but parts of both compressed into radioactive poetry; the right words in the right order, lending light. A poem is an animal big enough to ride, teeming with unexpected energy, charting a course into the unknown, moments of agility and delight that do not throw the rider off its back, but serve as reminders of the exquisite muscularity and nimbleness of the animal, and the reader is made more beautiful as well, by having ridden it."

The Rhythm Method, Razzmatazz and Memory:
How To Make Your Poetry Swing
Keith Flynn

Reflection on Holy Communion 6

Apparently if you eat the same thing every day, you get a condition called 'appetite fatigue'. Imagine eating just rice for 30 days. It isn't just that you get bored. Your body has a physiological reaction such that you would rather starve to death than eat another grain of rice.

There seems to be two solutions to appetite fatigue. Eat something different each day, or have a variety of foods available each day .

Many of our churches (at least in Sydney) have worried about a kind of 'appetite fatigue' that can happen from traditional liturgy. And so we have opted for variety, for something different each week, to try and keep us entertained and interested.

I think we have missed a fundamental reality of our tradition.
Our liturgies don't lay out bowls of plain rice each day. They put on a feast each day!!
This is especially true of the Apostles Creed.
Here is a feast of gospel truth. Here is a spread that reaches from eternity to eternity. Here is a feast worth eating every day! It never grows dull, because today you might savour one dish, the next day you might chew on another. Some days a plate might pass you by without you eating it, but that is ok, because tomorrow you will feast again.

Unfortunately our parishoners have become used to fast food. And so the thought of having a maccas liturgy over and over scares them. (and rightly so)
We need to introduce each other again to the feast that is worth eating each day, to words that are so full and rich that they bear daily repetition, that grow and ripen and have depth of flavour as they get older.

Most of this post is informed by eating with the Italian Family of my wife, but an even better example is the bundle of spices that make up the Vietnamese Pho ball. A while back I heard that the best Pho is made with a bundle of spices that gets reused. The bundle needs to be used regularly (to sterilize it), but each use adds a complexity of flavour to the ball of spices as the flavours blend and interconnect. The best Pho is made from spice balls that have literally been handed down through generations, gaining depth with every bowl of soup.
I miss Pho. I could it eat it every day