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Friday, August 13, 2010

Conversational Preaching


Conversation is a powerful way to connect people. We don't normally sit and listen to one person lecture while everyone else is quite. Unless we're in church or school the normal mode of human operation is conversation. One person will share something and then a group will discuss it. Somehow we've gotten into this lecture/scholastic mode in churches where the sermon time is supposed to be the authoritative word to all the people in the church. What if it's not?

What if sermons are more conversational?

I first came across this idea when I read the book Preaching ReImagined by Doug Pagit. He suggested getting a group of people together to help plan a sermon. Basically the sermon would take shape in a small group setting and then get shared with the church. I've also read about churches that integrate Twitter and texting into the sermon process so the church can offer live feedback to the preacher during the sermon.

In my experience, though, the best way to have a conversation during a sermon is to just have a conversation during a sermon. I learned a lot about this from Ron Clark at the Agape Church of Christ. We would just have times of questions and sharing during the service and during the sermon. Some of the best conversation came over discussing the meaning of religious art.

Do you try to have conversational preaching? How do you do it?

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