Addiction

Last night was our time of community worship & we did things a bit differently. There are several reasons why, three actually, that are leading me to imagine new spiritual activities as we gather.

First: On ITunes you can download podcasts of just about anybody; & all of this for free (mostly). Thankfully Eugene Peterson has several podcasts from various talks he has given throughout the country. The talks I have been listening to revolve around his latest 5 books, or as his wife calls them: Peterson’s Pentateuch. As a pastor, scholar, & practitioner of the faith for over 50yrs, Eugene has so much wisdom to share with us.

One of the themes he continually, & appropriately, works through is his dissatisfaction with the Evangelical church. I’m thankful for his perspective on this because he’s seen so much & this is the field I find myself in. He continually brings up illustrative points as to how we’ve created something so distant from Biblical & historical Christianity. I must admit as I listen to Eugene I am equally amused & convicted by his wisdom. He shares how in so many ways we have created a generation of Christian culture addicts; they sit, listen, tithe, & go their way. He, without reservation, details how we have not done so well at helping people to access the Holy One as a way of life.

All that to say this: He was invited to Seattle Pacific to do a sermon series. What was most intriguing to me was that each one of his "sermons" wasn’t a sermon; it was a story. He passionately, profoundly, succinctly, & effectively told stories to a listening audience. As I was running & listening to this I found myself smiling often because I was engrossed in the story he was telling. It was God’s story; it was my story. It wasn't a 3 point sermon; he told a story. As I look at world history one thing is beyond a doubt: Stories, & good story tellers, are a cross-cultural hit. Stories have been & always will be one of THE most effective ways to share information. Thanks Eugene.

Second: Reading through Charles Kraft’s book on communication has been illuminating. He continually demonstrates how our communication models aren’t really comparable to God’s via. Jesus’ communication on earth. Since this book is written to those who actually care about Christian communication one natural audience for this book is pastors, so naturally the topic of “sermon” is brought up many times. Dr. Kraft does an outstanding job putting “preaching” within its proper context; he never says monologues are bad; yet he, like many other scholars, reminds us: It is one of THE least effective ways of communication. This, for most of us isn’t a new idea; however, & this is a big however: I guarantee that the next time I sit in a room of pastors & we discuss how church is going 8 out of 10 pastors will share with the group what they’re monologue topic is. Preaching: Fresh, exciting, humorous, convicting, accessible, apologetics, power-point, passionate, etc; is one the least effective means of communicating. All of this has its roots, not is the NT as Dr. Kraft make obvious, but in the Reformation. Jesus’ monologues, but what percentage of his communication is monologue? Paul, Peter, John? Actually, John did a lot of monologues: John Calvin. But he ruled his own city, so he could monologue if he wanted to.

Last: I have continually been asking myself, “Who are the 95% who don’t follow Jesus & find church to be irrelevant to their spiritual needs?” Thankfully, God placed an awesome group of people around me to help me see who they are & how they worship their gods. As I recently attended one of their worship times I was struck by several things: The music was simple, repeatable, & had a moving tempo. The scene was sensual (not sexual, but there was a bit of that too!); people were dancing, others were blowing incense in your face, people were sitting & meditating. There was a ton of worship happening & there was no teaching, monologue, or preaching. As I reflected on “church” I imagined the opposite happening: There’s a ton of monologue, but not so much worship. Too, as I sat in the room with these passionate worshippers I asked myself, “The goal is to introduce these people to the living God & the gathering of the saints is one of the main ways this happens. How would any of these people respond if I asked them to leave this way of worship in exchange for a neat Bible & a comfy chair where they could listen to me extrapolate Biblical truths in the name of solid apologetics.” I at once was struck by the difference between their active worship with our static worship. But, in our faith (generally) when the greatest amount of space is given to monologue by the experts, what are the people to do, but sit, listen, & be amazed at the oratory skills of the speaker?

So last night, which was the first Sunday of Epiphany, I didn’t preach. We sang songs to God, I shared a story about the pain of a dark creation giving way to joy, as the stars lit the way for the Magi to worship the light born in a manger. Too, I told the story of the light being born in my life. We then practiced Lectio Divina on the text where Jesus says, “those who practice my words build upon the rock.” We: Read, Meditated, Prayed, & Contemplated the Word; Together.

Where this is all headed is a mystery to me...