Preaching

I've been doing a lot of thinking about preaching, as of late. Perhaps its because I've been preparing a sermon for a good portion of this week...

Regardless of the reason, preaching has been on my mind. This whole thing has become a lot more difficult than I remember. Maybe its just because suddenly the pressure is on, in that if I don't preach well in these next couple of days, I won't get the job in Maitland. Yes, I've preached before, but never in circumstances quite like this. I think I just need to relax a bit, probably, and leave more of it up to God.

Anyway, that isn't the main thing I've been thinking about, in terms of preaching. I've been batting around the idea of what I'll call 'dialogue preaching'. I'm not the originator of this idea, but I can't quite remember where I got it from, else I would credit my source. Just know that its not me.

In this form of preaching, you would choose a text and discuss it. For the sake of the ease, let's choose the Beatitudes. The small group of people would take these 12 verses and delve deeply into what exactly Christ meant, based on the context, the author's frame of reference and agenda, etc etc. Prior to the discussion, each person would be expected to have read and familiared themselves with the text, and necessary background information. This discussion would hopefully flesh out the angles on which to preach, as well as how to approach the subject.

There are several problems inherent in this, of course. One of them is that life happens...so, if no one does the work beforehand, the whole discussion will be lacking. The other is if everyone's opinions are widely disparate, it might not work to bring all of them together into one sermon. Also, if the one presenting the sermon is a bit pig-headed, there is the issue of them not giving justice to opinions that differ from theirs.

The upside is that the sermon goes from being a simple expression of one person's take on a passage, but the entire community gets to play a part in the presentation of the gospel from the pulpit. This interaction allows the gospel to become more relevant to each person's life and experience, something not to be neglected.

Again, as I've said, this is only an idea and possibility...I haven't tried it yet to see if it is practical. I'm interested in thoughts from others and whatnot, about its practicality or any other aspect. Word.