It is said that preachers have one passion – one overarching theme that all sermons lead to – mine is the connection between the text and cheap nba jerseys experience. Now the whole experience thing is not very PC…but I decided lynne to ‘out’ myself at Protection the beginning of these kiwi-made preaching blogs…so here goes!
I believe the text should push us into an experience of God and experiences of God should push us back into the text. The Lukan Jesus I study in life and in my doctorate take me there. The Lukan Jesus is a very human man living in wholesale nba jerseys a very earthly world who relies heavily on the power of the Spirit and prayer. He ‘needs’ the Spirit, he draws on the Spirit constantly wholesale jerseys and therefore he lives well … fully as a human. He is the kenotic Christ of Philippians 2 – as I read him anyway!
If Jesus is so dependent upon prayer and the Spirit’s enabling in his life, then I think we should take seriously how much we need go beyond cerebral faith into lived experience of God at work in our lives.
As a result, I think planning between preacher and worship leader is vital. How do we transition between the sermon and what follows? How connected is our worship with our preaching? How are we allowing for people to respond to the message? Do we give them time sitting in the presence of God to pray, to worship, to confess sins, or to hear God speak to them? Now I come from the charismatic tradition and so for application? me, I want at least 2-3 songs after a sermon to listen and respond to God; I find prayer ministry a helpful way to engage with God and hear him speak to me; and as an Anglican priest I find coming forward for communion useful too. What I do not want is rushing on to prayer and more words…or worse – the final song. I Road want (and I might even say ‘need’) space; a place where the Spirit can speak and I can respond to God in intentional worship.
Now cheap nba jerseys I know this type of response is not what everyone cheap nba jerseys finds a useful way to connect to God, but I do think we all need some way to synthesise knowledge from the preaching with our lived relationship with God before we hit the streets! Statistics tell us that by the time we reach our car, we have forgotten 80% of what has been said in a sermon. That’s frightening! By the time you are in your car NEW heading to work on Monday or getting the kids off to school, the message may all be a blur…
How are we helping people connect with God in and through the preaching on a Sunday so that on Monday people are living more as disciples of Jesus?
Sarah is a wife, mum, Anglican Priest and Otago doctoral student working in the Gospel of Luke and telling the salvation story of Zacchaeus.
Hey Sarah – I agree with you about needing time after a sermon to reflect on/respond to a message. And I like that you suggest diferent ways to do it. If the reflection time (if it exists at all) is the same every week it can easily become just the thing you do after the sermon, but by offering different response options (eg communion, prayer, music etc) that sit well alongside what has been said in the sermon, the congregation are given a chance to be driven to that place of experience which I agree we all need. Nice.