Look a squirrel – (Poets/prophets/preachers Part 4)

In 2007 Time magazine did an article on Rob Bell.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1692051,00.html

“At 28, he founded a megachurch that threw out the conventional sermon-and-worship service and instantly drew thousands of attendees. He has sold hundreds of thousands of books with titles like Velvet Elvis and Sex God that find the sacred in the profane. And he has created a form of video message he calls Nooma (phonetic Greek for spirit or breath) that may make him to YouTube what [Billy] Graham was to the arena….If the father of a young child can watch Rain, a divine-love parable featuring Bell and his son during a storm, and not fight tears, he is Christopher Hitchens. The 18 Nooma DVDs have sold 1.2 million units.

I remember watching some of the Nooma videos. They were very engaging and helpful, and provoked many fruitful discussions that started “is that quite right what he said about such and such“.

One of the things people feel uncomfortable about with Rob seems to be that he ask “what if” too much and doesn’t always give a clear answer. I guess there are pros and cons to that approach.

I have been blogging my notes from a recent series of seminars he gave on preaching called Poets/prophets/preachers. I have already shared some notes on the second seminar which starts “What I’m interested in is the thing behind the thing behind the thing….Where and how you begin the story and where and how you end the story, shapes and determines what story your telling.”

Just a few quotes towards the end of the seminar:

“Justice, the poor, the oppressed.

• half the world lives on 2 American dollars a day
• a billion have no drinking water
• 800 million will go to sleep hungry tonight
• 80% of the world lives in sub standard housing”

There is enough food in the world.

We aren’t stewarding the earth well.”

“the story is about God restoring all things, empty stomachs and empty hearts.”

“A sermon then, is the continuing insistence that through the resurrection of Jesus a whole new world is bursting forth right here in the midst of this one and everybody everywhere can be a part of it.”

“What you look for you will find if you look for churches that make you embarrassed to be a Christian you may find them…”

“An 18 or 19 year old girl said to me three weeks ago  ‘everything Christian I have ever known is totally lame and Christianity is pathetic, why would I want to be part of that?’ [She had been in the church for ages and it was just after the main service] Thanks! I said to her what about that woman right there who just said to the other woman who lost her job that she was going to pay her grocery bill until she gets a new one. What about those people who sold most of their possessions to take in those two orphans and give them a home because they had a sense that that was what Jesus wanted them to do and they did it. My problem is you see ‘that’[lame Christians] but I see that [love and care for those in need] and now you have seen that![love and care…]“

“a sermon then is helping  people see this new creation with their own eye” ie show them things they would at first sight not see. It’s like when I (Marcus) say to my kids “Look there, in that tree, look“. For a while all they see is a tree.  Then suddenly as I had hold their attention there they see it! A squirrel!

“The resurrection is hope for this world!” (ie this world being rectified)

“The whole world is your rhetorical tool box… if you see something that is humming with reverence, that’s got resurrection written all over it” .

You can tell a story about someone who isn’t a Christian but who did something that points to the resurrection because they are made by God and therefore will reflect him in some way. Obviously with some distortion, like everyone.

I was asked today why I preach, ie what my motivation is. I guess in part its because I want people to see the squirrel. To see the glory of God in everything from creation through to salvation. Even the last year where I have preached on nothing but supernatural healing all I have really been doing is saying “look at what God is like! He is so good he heals people. Can you see it? Can you see it? Look. Keep looking. Follow my finger“. When you really see something of what God is like the application should be pretty obvious. That is just as well because each person’s life is so different from another’s that you couldn’t hope to give all the applications for every person’s situation. My friend also asked me about the place of application in a preach. I think I struggled to give an answer because of the emphasis I want to have on pointing God out. It would be easy to overplay this though as Paul does give lots of applications in his letters (although some of them are quite general).

The result of preaching (Poets/prophets/preachers Part 3)

Micheal McIntyre

Recently I read a newspaper article that talked about how the comedian Michael McIntyre is “mocked”, and “derided”, “abused” and “criticized”, even by members of his  own profession. Apparently it’s not just because he is very successful but that he is “safe” and states the obvious. Now, if Michael can be the recipient of so much hate for trying to entertain lots of people, what chance have the rest of us got of avoiding scorn. If middle of the road comedy polarizes opinion in such a sharp way, how much more will preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It’s been a while since I watched Rob Bell’s seminars on preaching but here are some more of my notes:

“When you preach you are opening yourself up to misinterpretation and confusion and anger and ignorance and fear and jealousy and opinions and evaluation and critique and agendas and baggage and convictions and projections and

the possibility of

truth and light and hope and repentance and desire and compassion and longing and revolution and confession and inspiration and comfort and solidarity and salvation and resurrection.

[But] you don’t get to pick one or the other….if I am going to give a sermon, give part of myself, I am going to open myself up to all sorts of things. And that’s just how it is. We can’t resolve this one. They tried to kill Jesus and eventually they did. That’s strangely inspiring and at the same time a bucket of cold water. Acts 17 (some sneered and others wanted to hear more)”

 

He goes on:

“The bible begins with a poem ‘and God said'”

“Words create new worlds.”

“There is a divine, redemptive nuclear power in words.”

“Why would anyone want to give a sermon?”

“My hope is that these are talks that start talks”

Me – That last comment is so wonderfully emerging church! Just a thought though  – sometimes the emerging church guys are slated for not stating their doctrine clearly enough but Jesus didn’t always answer questions straight though did he? A little evasiveness can be a good thing in some situations, where traps are being set or the questioner can’t see their own faulty presuppositions. Some things seem to lose clarity the more they are clarified. On the other hand, Paul stated some things very clearly when he was writing to teach Christians.

Rob goes on to say :

“with Jesus its less about having the last word and more about having the first word…a bit less about ending the discussion and more about starting it”.

“if you can resolve a sermon by the end of the sermon then there is something inherently wrong with the sermon…it [needs] to become incarnated…talking about generosity [leads to people] becoming generosity”

You preach “not because you have to say something, it’s because you have something to say…I refuse to just give sermons”

He says something along the lines of “there are things to do that take 5-10 mins every day rather than 40 hours to make sure there is always stuff going on in your head and you have things to talk about.” That’s helpful. I have found that blogging does that for me. Everyday I’m thinking about something in a concrete way. Advancing my understanding of biblical truth. When it comes to preaching and teaching there just seems to be more there to come out.

Start at the beginning – (Poets/prophets/preachers Part 2)

Rob Bell is a popular but controversial Pastor. He is part of what’s called “the emerging church”, a feature of which is questioning the way church has traditionally been done. One of things it questions is the preach; “a monolog of one person telling a lot of other people what to think.” Some argue that people don’t process information like that anymore. They need to discus and argue and engage with truth. Truth is digested in a “conversation” not a presentation. It is a testimony to the diversity of thought in the emerging church that Rob Bell seems here to be arguing quite the opposite. At any rate it is not the monologue he wants to change (these seminars are basically him talking for 5 hours), it’s the content and style. Here are some rough notes on telling a story from the beginning to the end.

Start from Shalom rather than sin:

We need to start telling the story at the beginning. When we give a sermon are we starting in Genesis 1 or Genesis 3.

“If we starts from Genesis 3 then the issue is the removal of sin. If it’s in Genesis 1 it’s in the restoration of shalom/peace. Sin then takes its place within the larger story.”

“Don’t cold call with sin ie ‘lets talk about you, you are an abomination!’…They will respond ‘I don’t need once a week to be told how terrible I am’.”

Begin in Genesis 1 when everything was very good and shalom. Then people will see their part how it got messed up. If you start with “sin” then people just go “what? What are you talking about?”

The end of the story is like the beginning:

“It’s about heaven and earth coming together. I get concerned that some people will be on the way up as God is on the way down and they will pass in the air“

(ie God is coming down to dwell here, rather than us going up to be with him -lets not be too busy trying to get up there to heaven, the deal is heave  coming down hear to earth).

“when we preach the resurrection there is the belief that something big is going down and it is happening right in the midst of the old creation”.

Rob bell makes the point that Shalom in Genesis 1 and 2 is several elements of peace. Its peace with God, peace with other people, peace with the earth, and peace with yourself. I think I have heard that before buts it a helpful reminder.

“The story is anticipating the coming day when heaven and earth are one again.”

He mentions the “triple bottom line” of People, Planet and Profit. It brings a consideration of  how your business effects people, the environment and it’s place in the vital and necessary task of helping organize/manage/steward creation.

We must not tell people how to escape the “soil” to get to a “spiritual place” or the business woman will think she is not in the game. She will think she is making money to give to people who are in the game but we are all involved in extending the kingdom in all we do. Making money is part of redistributing resources.

He made a couple of other intersting statments that I will note here:

“Mary doesn’t recognise Jesus and thinks he is the gardener!”

“heaven is where God is storing the earth’s future.”

I really liked this last section as it highlights the current nearness and touch-ability of the future unity of heaven and earth. It reminds me of the whole Bill Johnson emphasis of seeing the kingdom of God come now on earth as it is in heaven. It also means that what we are doing now can last. 1 Cor 3:14,15 talks about a mans work being tested by fire. Depending on how its built it might be “burnt up” or it might “survive“. It’s much more motivating doing something that will last. I am reminded of the old chorus: “I want to give my life, for something that will last forever”.

A lost art form – (Poets/prophets/preachers Part 1)

Rob Bell

I really enjoyed watching Rob bell’s “Everything is spiritual”, not simply because of what he said but more because of the way he said it. He is a great communicator. That’s why I am really enjoying his “Poets/prophets/preachers” seminars where he looks to inspire and equip people in the lost art of preaching.

I won’t post detailed notes (he talks for five hours!), just a few highlights.

Intro

The sermon is “its a brilliant primal art form”

“As the world gets more twitterised I believe that what’s going to happen more and more it actually people gather in an actual room which an actual person who has actual flesh and blood who is actually talking in real time, about things that actually matters and people actually hearing it and saying I was there and it did something.” Rob Bell

Wong responses to a sermon

• For some people their posture to a sermon is whether they “liked” it or not.
• Sometimes people say about a sermon “she did a good job“, to which his response is “yeh but how did you do, because the point was to listen and then do something with it“

What if after Martin Luther King’s dream speech people responded “it was a bit long and I’ve heard some of those stories before”.

What people want from a sermon

“Be vulnerable and honest and personal but not too personal because this isn’t a therapy session and we need lots of bible but not too much because it has to relate to what’s happening in our lives and in the world today but it can’t be political and it has to be challenging and deep and significant and at the same time easy for everybody to understand and it has to be funny but not too funny because you’re not a comedian you’re a pastor and while you’re at it mix it up and try new things and don’t get it in a rut but make sure to be consistent and talk about your own struggles, but not too much because that’s depressing. And we love stories about your family. But not too many. That can be weird. Just be vulnerable and honest and…”

A sermon can be:

• Gorilla theater to wake people up and get them to think. Leave the thinking.
• A wake up call “your better than this”
• A sub-version “there is another better story going on here, its not how it looks”
• A warning “you’ve lost the plot” (my example)
• An invitation
• A Witness

“sometimes a sermon is straight up witness. If you don’t share it, speak it, tell it, point to it, express it, preach it, you’ll spontaneously combust.” You have witnessed something and you just have to share it. Jeremiah 20 “his word is in my heart like a fire shut up in my bones I am weary of holding it in, indeed I cannot”