Updated 19 May 2012
On the roll of the dice ...
Seventh of Easter
Acts 1.15-17, 21-26; John 17.6-19
She was rather reluctant to go. Only the insistence of her friend persuaded her to share in the prison visiting scheme. They were consigned to a Young Offenders Institution. Those she was to visit
about the same age as herself. Her friend had judged that the young men held there would be rather more enthusiastic about speaking to a pretty young woman than to him. How right he was. Despite her apprehension - at the first locked door she had wanted to run away – she had a great time.
Afterwards driving back in the car she was very quiet. Her friend had seen her confidence and enthusiasm grow in the visiting room - but now she was silent. Eventually she spoke up, "They are just like me, or you," she said. "If things had been different, it could be you or me locked in there."
“If things had been different …”
For the full text of this sermon click here.
about the same age as herself. Her friend had judged that the young men held there would be rather more enthusiastic about speaking to a pretty young woman than to him. How right he was. Despite her apprehension - at the first locked door she had wanted to run away – she had a great time.
Afterwards driving back in the car she was very quiet. Her friend had seen her confidence and enthusiasm grow in the visiting room - but now she was silent. Eventually she spoke up, "They are just like me, or you," she said. "If things had been different, it could be you or me locked in there."
“If things had been different …”
For the full text of this sermon click here.
Pentecost
PreacherRhetorica - dedicated to preaching that's alert to the contemporary, passionate about Christian memory, and
works to be heard.
Every Christian gathering is a mnemonic event. Christians gather to remember that they are remembered by God. This is an actual re-membering: a way of putting together again the Body of Christ in order that it may be dispersed into the world when the gathering is over. In the coming together each individual's faith memory is renewed as it is reincorporated into the collective memory of the people of faith. We remember by communicating with one another, and that remembering enables us to live out the faith. Without that social remembering our individual memories fade.
We live in forgetful times which make it ever hard for an inherited faith to heard. This website is dedicated to the ways preaching can help overcome our contemporary cultural faith amnesia. You are free to use anything you find here in assisting your own Christian memory work or that of a congregation of which you're a part. All that is asked of you in return is acknowledgement of PreacherRhetorica as the source.
We live in forgetful times which make it ever hard for an inherited faith to heard. This website is dedicated to the ways preaching can help overcome our contemporary cultural faith amnesia. You are free to use anything you find here in assisting your own Christian memory work or that of a congregation of which you're a part. All that is asked of you in return is acknowledgement of PreacherRhetorica as the source.
Preaching as shamed consumption in a commodified social world: the Aldi bag syndrome
... ... ... My argument isn’t that communications skills are unimportant in the process of preaching, nor that sermons don’t need to be effective, but rather that preaching, like other aspects of religion, is subject to the all-embracing power of commodification and consumption. Like Vincent Miller, I believe that consumer culture has transformed, and is transforming, our religious beliefs and practices [2004:31]. The preacher, like everyone else, cannot stand aloof from that culture and determine from some illusory neutral spot how to subvert it. The reality is that how we ‘avow, interpret, and employ the beliefs, symbols, values, and practices’ [Miller, 2004:31] of our religious traditions has been
radically changed by consumer culture.
In this context, easy talk of counter-cultural messages is probably beside the point. Just as it is all too easy to unwittingly employ strategies born of consumerism in efforts to critique consumerism, and thereby neutralise the critique offered, so also the marketplace is incredibly adept in turning criticism into a marketing ploy. ... ... ... Read the full article here.
radically changed by consumer culture.
In this context, easy talk of counter-cultural messages is probably beside the point. Just as it is all too easy to unwittingly employ strategies born of consumerism in efforts to critique consumerism, and thereby neutralise the critique offered, so also the marketplace is incredibly adept in turning criticism into a marketing ploy. ... ... ... Read the full article here.
Overcoming reluctant feedback
In his important and disturbing essay Why Johnny Can't Preach (P and R Publishing Phillipsburg) David Gordon writes,
".... almost everywhere I go, when I ask people about their church home, they almost universally say that their minister is "not a great preacher," which we all know is just a polite way of saying: "Well, we don't really benefit from his preaching, but he's a very good minister in other ways." And while I'm delighted to hear that ministers are faithful in visitation, compassionate in caring for the sick, efficient in administration, or winsome towards the youth or the lost, I'd be even more delighted to hear someone say the opposite: "Well, he's a little awkward at visitation, but he is outstanding in the pulpit; and the preaching is so good, and so nourishing, that we put up with the other minor defects in other areas."
For all of us who preach the hard fact is that those who hear our sermons are often reluctant to gives us usable feedback. They may well describe our shortcomings to other people who ask, but at the door of the church a short positive comment is all that is likely to be forthcoming. Indeed the preponderance of the easy compliment sometimes makes the occasional angry response all the more welcome. Somehow we need to create strcutures and spaces where our preaching can receive more fullsome and useful feedback. I believe preaching to be an art, and just like any artist we need heartfelt comment and debate of our work. Part of creating space for such feedback is the appreciation that preaching is an aspect of our common life as people of faith rather than a celebrity star turn. For a poetic take on that (well, almost) see the blog here.
".... almost everywhere I go, when I ask people about their church home, they almost universally say that their minister is "not a great preacher," which we all know is just a polite way of saying: "Well, we don't really benefit from his preaching, but he's a very good minister in other ways." And while I'm delighted to hear that ministers are faithful in visitation, compassionate in caring for the sick, efficient in administration, or winsome towards the youth or the lost, I'd be even more delighted to hear someone say the opposite: "Well, he's a little awkward at visitation, but he is outstanding in the pulpit; and the preaching is so good, and so nourishing, that we put up with the other minor defects in other areas."
For all of us who preach the hard fact is that those who hear our sermons are often reluctant to gives us usable feedback. They may well describe our shortcomings to other people who ask, but at the door of the church a short positive comment is all that is likely to be forthcoming. Indeed the preponderance of the easy compliment sometimes makes the occasional angry response all the more welcome. Somehow we need to create strcutures and spaces where our preaching can receive more fullsome and useful feedback. I believe preaching to be an art, and just like any artist we need heartfelt comment and debate of our work. Part of creating space for such feedback is the appreciation that preaching is an aspect of our common life as people of faith rather than a celebrity star turn. For a poetic take on that (well, almost) see the blog here.
Preaching in an amnesic society. Practicalities of design and delivery here.
What is preaching? Ten aspects blogged here.
Designing a sermon
What sermon styles and structures serve the maintenance of Christian collective memory best? Often the answer to that question will be 'any that are effective generally.' Unfortunately it's all too easy to preach without giving enough thought to the basics of what's effective. Paying attention to things that serve the collective memory of the faith can be a way into overcoming that oversight. Sometimes the design of a sermon confuses what is otherwise pertinent and useful content.
Occasionally in these pages a sermon will be analysed so as to demonstrate what decisions were taken about style and structure, and the reasoning behind the choices made. You can find the first such analysis of a sermon for Pentecost here or you can find the sermon script without commentary here.
Updated 19 May 2012.
Occasionally in these pages a sermon will be analysed so as to demonstrate what decisions were taken about style and structure, and the reasoning behind the choices made. You can find the first such analysis of a sermon for Pentecost here or you can find the sermon script without commentary here.
Updated 19 May 2012.
