a couple of random thoughts
Is it alright to use the word "queer" again when referring to things that are odd or unusual? There is a great quote that comes out of the old Quaker heritage that goes like this, "All in the world are queer but me and thee and sometimes I wonder about thee." I haven't been able to say that quote out loud for years and I was just wondering if it would be safe yet. It amazes me how strange and biased and angry people are. It doesn't take much looking beneath the surface to discover the queerness.
What do people who live outside of Indianapolis think of the Indianapolis 500?
Is Rex Grossman going to be any better this year?
What do people like about the current spate of television preachers? I watch them for a few minutes and I wonder what there is that makes thousands of people flock to their services.
On the subject of preaching, do text and context mean anything anymore to the popular preacher or person in the pew who loves the popuar preacher? Are we at a point today when preaching is suffering the same fate as journalism? Does it seem to anyone else that the popular books, Christian songs, and topics that Christians like to talk about today are comparable to stories about Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith's will and the latest conspiracy theory about JFK? Are most Christians today really only capable of reading something along the line of a Max Lucado book? Is there a people somewhere who are wrestling with God in the gut wrenching ways that David and Job did? Can people relate to the deep things that David and Job wrote about their relationship with God?
posted by TWH @ 8:20 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Well TWH,
I don't know if it is "safe" to use that quote, but up here in Chicago land it fits either way.
And I'm preaching on Hosea this week. How is that for both scandelous and hard to deal with?
Well, I'll throw in my two cents.
I have no idea who Rex Grossman is.
As for TV preachers, I'm sure there are some good ones, but the one one I have seen lately is Joel Osteen, and I think he's a pretty-boy flake who doesn't preach anything resembling the Gospel. I guess I have also seen John Hagee. I don't enough about him to comment on his theology but he sure sweats a lot.
I don't really understand the culture of auto racing and why things like the Indy 500 are appealing...but to each his own.
Regarding text/context, I think preachers have to work harder these days to help people understand the context of the sermon text. The average Christian doesn't have great familiarity with the Bible. But I have been very, very encouraged the last couple of years at SLCC because there are a lot of students who are really hungry for the Word and are very deep thinkers. And many of them are female.
Interesting comments Kent, and very revealing. You don't know who Rex Grossman is?
There are three female preachers on TV quite often in our area. I don't appreciate their preaching although they do have on some nice outfits sometimes.
No, I really don't know who Rex Grossman is.
Oh, I have seen Joyce Meyer, from our very own St. Louis area. She could beat up Joel Osteen.
Oh, I googled Rex Grossman and he's a football player. That explains why I don't know him. I'm not really a sports guy. (But I'm learning that I should be because a lot of other people are.)
Kent Sanders, you said that "the average Christian doesn't have great familiarity with the Bible". Would you blame preachers for that? Or do you think that the many preachers who use the Bible out of context simply do not know the Bible for themselves either (in which case they would accurately reflect your average Christian)? I sometimes suspect that preachers look up a word in their concordance, connect the Scriptures and... Ta Da!! A sermon! Not being a pastor myself, I must say that that even that is most likely more than I could do... It's so much easier to provide a critique from a comfy pew, isn't it? But anyways, here is a question. Is it a pastor's responsibility to help people know the Word, or should we take responsibility for ourselves? The only way to really know the Bible is... ummm... to read it.
I'm glad that it was clarified who Rex Grossman is... I assumed he was a new t.v. evangelist, who encountered some mishaps his first year on the air. :)
Stephanie, I don't think sermon preparation is quite as trivial as a simple word search. Preachers looking for an easy way out have a wide variety of online sources these days (some free, some for purchase). But the one's who do spend time in study I would venture to say spend a good deal of time struggling with how to bring an ancient text to life for a digital culture.
I think Kent is right about the lack of familiarity with Scripture. I can't really say why it's that way, but perhaps churches are focusing on helping their members experience God - have a relationship with Jesus - and less on Bible knowledge.
TWH - I tried to bring back "queer" into my own speech a few years ago, and every time I said it, I got many queer looks...then having to clarify myself every time I didn't think it was worth using anymore.
Rex Grossman broke my heart.
Really great comments and humorous remarks.
Lucas-Hosea, wow, I'm impressed.
Kent-That was more than 2 cents worth, that was more like a buck fifty. Joyce missed her calling as a drill sergeant.
Tyler-You crack me up, I wish I was going to live to the end of this century so I could enjoy you longer.
Stephanie-Sounds like you have suffered from some dismal preaching up there in Canada. My experience has been different. I've had the joy of hearing some really good preaching all my life. All the guys who are commenting on this blog spend probably between 15-20 hours on any sermon that they preach. They preach with a lot of creativity, passion and prayer. I've heard every one of them preach. These guys have all been trained to be true to the text; to really get into the text and what God is saying to us today.
It is a fearsome thing to stand before people that God loves, knowing that He expects you to be His spokesman. When you listen to a sermon delivered from a true servant of God, flawed though he and the the sermon may be, God is speaking to your heart.
p.s. Tyler- I check the Chicago Bears website every week. I'm reading some good things about our man Rex. I have hope.
I don't know if this thread has run its course but I'll follow up.
I was trained as a preacher, but have spent most of my "professional" focus on worship leading and music. However, since I've been doing an interim preaching ministry for 8 months or so, and preparing sermons weekly, I have been reminded in a striking way how much of a struggle it is to do the study, wrestle with the text, and feel like you are bringing it to bear on people's everyday lives in a meaningful way. I have massive respect for guys like Tim who have been doing it for a long time, week to week. I always finish a sermon feeling like "There's so much more I need to say." But Tim is right, God works through imperfect preachers - and thank goodness!
As for the lack of Bible knowledge, my guess is it's more complicated that a simple answer would provide. My hunch is that part of the reason is that people see church leaders talk about the importance of knowing the Bible, but they don't see much life change as the result of that knowledge. Bible knowledge is not the end goal; it has no value in and of itself. We are to be hearers of the Word, and not just doers. In our Western mindset we have emphasized the intellectual pursuit, and not the heart change that should come along with it.
Like Tim, I have heard a lot of great preaching also. Good preaching moves the listener not just intellectually, but emotionally. We have forgotten about that component sometimes. I learned a lot by listening to Tim every week for a number of years.
But Stephanie, if you want to hear God's Word communicated in a great way, just get on iTunes and subscribe to some of the great podcasts that are available (for free!).
Lucas--I recently preached through Hosea, and I loved it. Studying and preaching the prophets is extremely rewarding. Maybe we can exchange some notes.
Dad--Your incredulity at the current state of sermons and other Christian literature resonates deeply with me.
I believe there are couple reasons for this. First I think that some pastors really do want to help people and are gifted speakers, but they are so swamped with their many responsibilites that they don't have time to prepare what I would call solid Biblical sermons.
Secondly, I think some for whatever reason are not students at heart and so are not willing to study and wrestle with the scripture. It may be that they are good at leadership, but are not too great at studying and preaching, but they get by with Charisma and popular themes.
I'm preaching through Romans right now, and I'll have to say, it is hard. There is so much jammed in every verse and so much debate about how to understand the teachings of Paul that it can be overwhelming. I have been happy with the majority of the sermons I've preached, a couple I'd like to have back, but I have had to completely immerse myself in the book of Romans, and that for many pastors is simply too much.
Let's face it, many of the sermons we would bemoan are easy to write. A lot of these sermons come out of an old testament narrative, a gospel story, or a single passage from an epistle and there is zero genre analysis or exegetical work. Those kinds of sermons we could write in our sleep. And that's why so many people write them.
It takes so much effort to truly understand the original meaning of the text--to climb inside the culture and the metaphors. Its so easy to tell people how God's little principle fits into their personal narrative. It is much harder to show people how they fit into God's grand metanarrative, nor does it seem to be very popular.
I love to preach and I love to listen to preaching. The preacher doesn't have to be fancy, clever, or funny. They just need to love God and love to study the Bible. Personally, I believe that if I love the book of Hosea, demonstrate my enthusiasm for the text, and help people to see and experience the heart of God, then people will be transformed and God will be glorified.
As for TV preachers and popular book writers, they actually help me to clarify for people how to understand the text, for I usually spend time (especially teaching through Romans) detailing popular intepretations of texts (even if they do sound ridiculous) and clarifying for them a better intepretation of the text over and against the popular understanding. Not that my own intepretations are always right, but they are usually in line with other scholarly writers, whereas many popular preachers don't seemed informed by important exegesis and scholarly debate on their selected text.
I have always believed in Rex Grossman.
Post a Comment
<< Home