Collaboration

Collaboration is such a huge value to most people. Having the chance to work together to make a meaningful contribution excites passions and connection. Too bad the sermon is often devoid of collaboration. Very often the sermon is a time where one person is speaking their own thoughts (or reflecting on the thoughts of authors) about the bible. Where is the collaboration?

I will admit that it is very difficult to prepare a sermon collaboratively. It takes a lot of work to get to a place where the sermon can invite other voices. I learned a lot from Ron Clark at the Agape Church of Christ about how to preach so that others are involved. There we would look at a piece of art and discuss it as a church. We would have questions in the middle of the sermon and spend time discussing how the text could apply to our lives.

I know you may be skeptical about how this could work in a large church. I will admit that with 1,000 people the atmosphere is going to be different than with 50, but you can still pose questions. A lot of churches have their greeting time (which is usually pretty lame and boring where visitors feel even more alienated because the members are just firming up lunch plans). What if the greeting time was a time to discuss a work of art shown on the screen? People could walk around and talk with a purpose and it would get them thinking about the sermon.

What could you do to collaborate on the sermon?