Comments on: what the tourists don’t see

By: Insley

Insley — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:30:11 +0000

I just want to commend Brother Erdman’s book to all the readers of this blog. Thanks Maggie for having raised awareness of it. His words allow the preacher to breathe under the light load of preaching authentically, and yet he raises all expectations for what preaching might be. This gift of freedom within the powerful call to testify is a beautiful one for every preacher.

By: Erdman

Erdman — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:59:16 +0000

We all, each and every one of us, are really remarkable vessels. “Cracked pots,” “jars of clay,” as St. Paul tells us…and yet it’s precisely through that humanness that the light of Christ shines through.
Too long has preaching been imagined as a something done by folks who resemble a China vase sitting on the mantle…and that’s what’s gummed up the natural, God-breathed brilliance that wants to shine through us. Maggi’s got it right in her language about “gospel-tellers.”
You know how marvelously and beautifully and authentically we speak in an unguarded moment. That’s what we are, by the Holy Spirit, summoned to offer. Then, and only then, will we be any good at all. Then, and only then, will preaching or whatever you want to call it, will be any fun or joy or sense of that wondrous mystery God’s intended it to be.
Not that it’s going to be easy. Lord knows, we just might get ourselves killed for voicing this news. But if we’re inauthentic we’re already dead. If we’re true to our own God-breathed originality, then there’s nothing in this world that can really kill us. There’s something exquisitely joyous about that, and that’s something God can really us.
That, in part is what my book is about. Freeing up “preachers” to live more fully into the selves God has made them to be…whether engaging politics, war, the exegetical task, weddings, funerals, natural disasters and whatever else. I’m most concerned about the formation of the preacher herself.
Thanks Maggi for posting on this.

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:30:21 +0000

This sounds great Maggi. A friend and I have started a service in a cafe for folks who want to be a part of a community but maybe have issues with church. We decided that there would be time after the sermon for people to respond and discuss the sermon. I’ve read of places doing this but I wasn’t sure how it would go. It was really good though. I had images of the disasterous dialogue sermon in “Mass Appeal” but everyone participated in the discussion and it was insightful.
I love your description of preaching too.

By: P3T3RK3Y5

P3T3RK3Y5 — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:35:36 +0000

my community struggled with this too…
borrowing from the internet:
we use the term “content” instead of “sermon”; and “content provider” to describe the role of the person who preaches, uh, provides said content.
this idea of “content” has so many good connotations for us … (living near the AOL backbone) because e.g. for webpage design… “content is king”… (vs flash, hype, gloss)

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:09:00 +0000

Maggi – I love your description of what preaching ‘really is’ and have linked to it from my blog – hope that’s ok!! Thanks for posting this – it’s a real encouragement to people like me with one foot in ‘emerging’ and the other in ‘inherited’

By: Paul Fromont

Paul Fromont — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:55:15 +0000

Hi Maggi, looking forward to reading Chris’ book too. As I read your ‘review’ I thought of Anna Carter Florence’s “Preaching As Testimony” (Westminster John Knox Press) I haven’t read the book, but linked to the introduction on my blog sometime ago. She, like Chris (and you) offers alternative ways of talking about “preaching” that I think are useful.