Festival of Preaching

I attended on Saturday the Festival of Preaching at Chelmsford Cathedral, run by the College of Preachers, with Bishop Stephen as the key note speaker. What came across to me was his reality as to the hard work of preaching. But he then took us in to some very helpful insights. These are a few of his thoughts, though it is hard to get the flavour of a very inspirational address.

He quoted David Ford, 'I remember preachers, not sermons'. Sermons can carry great meaning, but the actual words fade. But we remember, say, the passion of the preacher.

How can we remain passionate in our preaching? For the best visual aid is the preacher themselves.

Are we seduced by the microphone? Probably best to assume it is not there at all. But more than that:

1. Regularly invite feedback - from someone who loves you! Have we had serious feedback since our training or curacy? 'Preacher is a gruelling business... Though it is an art it is also a craft' - Colin Morris. Look at today's Stand Up comics to learn about the craft of holding attention. The modern Stand Up comic tells stories, not jokes. Instead of a linear logical sermon, we casually stroll around it looking at it from different angles.

2. Dare to experiment with the form in preaching. Eg speak as a character in the gospel rather than about the story.

3. Rediscover and Recover confidence in the medium. Discover that preaching works. Be very clear who you are trying to please. Preaching ought from for time to time to irritate, to get under the skin. Don't be afraid to be naughty as a preacher.

4. Get yourself evangelised! Return to that first love.

Lots to do to put this into practice but I look forward to the challenge.

Between: Disabled people are being betrayed

Between: Disabled people are being betrayed: Ekklesia has an excellent short research paper which maps out the contours of a revolution in Britain’s benefits and welfare system. Th...

Undefended Leadership

Last night I dreamt that I was being threatened in my home on behalf of someone who wanted to live here in my place. In my dream I found myself ashamed of how all too easily I could become aggressive.

Fear quickly controls us all. Johnny Cash could sing powerfully of "The Beast in Me". We all know that beast.

Sometimes I and colleagues share about the loneliness of leadership. There are pressures that we bear alone.

Simon Walker's book, The Undefended Leader, speaks of leading out of who you are.

He contrasts the authority of the Nelson Mandela's of this world with commonplace leadership. All leadership is based on the use of power. But great leadership he suggests involves being honest about vulnerability, involves being willing to lift the veil on one's own weakness.

This is not easy. Leadership often involves not only dealing with conflict but also navigating around situations that sometimes are barely understood. In such situations it is difficult to understand one's inner psyche. Control and dominating seem to offer an easy and safe escape from chaos. The result is the creation of communities in the image of the leader. This is the temptation for those who tend to regard the world as a favourable place, which can be influenced. It is safe - on their terms. For those whoe see the world as unfavourable the temptation to define the world in their own image is much more explicit.

An alternative is to adapt to circumstances around: leadership that sees which way the wind is blowing and leads in that direction. It is difficult to influence people do you 'go with the flow'.

Both those that adapt and those that seek to shape their communities in their own image lead out of a need for approval. And for those who see the world mainly as a dangerous place, and who have little trust in themselves or others, the tendency will be towards caution and defensiveness.

What is the solution? It comes in finding a proper source of approval. Billy Graham was once asked how he felt about speaking to the Queen. He responded that it was no different to meeting anyone else, for he spoke with the King of Kings every day (my example).

How can such security be nurtured? In a discovery of who God is.

"[I]t is the compassion and unconditional generosity of God that compels him to reach out to those in need, even though they do not deserve it. This idea, of course, turns religion on its head. Religion is the social phenomenon in which human beings offer service to various divinities. According to Jesus and the writers of the New Testament, this activity of religion has nothing to do with God at all. God is not someone who is served, but someone who serves." (p118).

At p.119 he says that there is a choice to be made. "Do we choose to experience life as a possession that may be taken away from us, or as a gift generously bestowed on us?"

Quote for the Day

"Apostolic ministry is authenticated by suffering and empowerment, not by claims of positional leadership. with its institutional levers." - Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 159

Quote for the Day

"Leadership in the Church has to be both missionary and pastoral. The separation of these from one another us always a distortion of churchmanship. They are one insofar as they are rooted in something still more fundamental, in discipleship, in following Jesus along the way of the cross in such a way that those whom he calls may be enabled to follow too, and that so God may be glorified in them (17:20-23)."

Lessle Newbigin, The Light Has Come - an Exposition of the Fourth Gospel, on John 21:15-19