My initial thought, when I read Steve’s book (in preparation for the course), was “Oh no, it’s about trendy churches and I don’t do trendy”.
My next thought was that that this course would be about “off-with-the-pixies” spirituality and I don’t do “off-with-the-pixies”.
My third reaction, when I actually started doing the course (and a reaction which continued through the course) was that I have actually done some of this already, even though I wasn’t actually trying to be creative or post-modern. As I warmed to the course I began thinking that the course gave me permission to do some of these things intentionally and that they could be introduced, even in a fairly traditional setting, provided that they were applied with wisdom and gentleness.
I suspect that the reason for my initial concern was because my exposure in the past to some of these approaches has been in a fairly liberal context and it has seemed, fairly or unfairly, that this post-modern style ministry style was a substitute for substance. In recent years my experience has been that “creative form” has been linked to “creative theology” as we drift further and further away from the Bible and the heritage of John Wesley.
What impressed me was that Steve, as a Baptist, actually believed in the things that Christians are supposed to believe in and that Course Reader reminds us that the objective of ministry should be, in part, to point people towards the Bible. The article by Christine McSpadden states “Preach so that your hearers want to hear more about the Bible” and also concludes with a method for testing, a week after the sermon, to ascertain how effective it was.
DJ-ing with juxtaposition and amplification I found easy to apply although subverting is something I would need to work through because I am sure that if I used George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” someone would get upset because I used a song dedicated to Krishna. Perhaps one way to get around that would be to acknowledge with a mischievous grin that a text or an image was being used out of context but was being used as a cultural echo to illustrate a point. Perhaps my caution is that having pushed the envelope a few times I got some reactions. These days the only battles I engage in are those which are worth fighting.
One thing I did appreciate was that art and the visual will be a feature of post-modern ministry. Today the cathedrals of England have bare walls whereas once they were festooned with decorations and images. Art could be used with a video projector provided that it served as an aide and not a distraction to the sermon. Relevant images could be projected while the offering was being collected or during a moment of meditation or reflection.
However this still leaves the sermon as an oral experience. I have a copy of the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery and have used it in a conventional sense but the idea of preaching a sermon with 3 metaphors instead of the traditional three points intrigued me. (In fact I might try it in my next sermon). I could then have three images projected during the sermon, each image connecting to a metaphor. This would then add a visual element to the sermon without being unnecessarily distracting. Likewise I’ll need to venture a bit more out of my comfort zone and try preaching more inductively.
Furthermore, engaging in a more conversational style, for me, is “do-able”. In our tradition the Sunday Service often includes a Children’s Talk which involves interacting with the small number of children present, or in their absence, with the “older children” who are normally in their seventies. This is a part of the service where there is an inbuilt permission to be “different”, to engage conversationally and thus extend the story-telling once the children have been dismissed. Perhaps this is an area I should experiment with. I actually enjoyed the class exercise in which we told someone else the story of Elizabeth and Mary, so perhaps it is merely my inexperience and a lack of confidence which causes me to be reticent. This is one area of the course which definitely needs more follow-up.
However the above says a lot about technique. Engaging the text is also important and as a day dreamer I liked the idea of Lectio Divina and also viewing the text from different perspectives, from the viewpoint of the disempowered, the voices not normally heard and other unusual directions. I like the ideas of making an effort to become part of the text with the hope that the congregation would also be more likely to enter into the text. This would also tie in with the tendency in recent years to acknowledge that we all read the text through our own cultural lenses and that scholars and commentaries from other cultures can provide additional insights. It therefore occurs to me that post-modern engagement with the text releases new possibilities.
To conclude, I found in this course much to think about.
One thing I must do though, if it is to be of ongoing benefit is to develop a checklist so that each time I develop a service I am forced to think engage with the alternatives and insights presented by this course and consider the total experience. I must also make a point of considering not only the parishioners I know will be present but also who should be, such as the young lady on the video who explained what it is to be part of a post-modern generation.
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Hi Peter,
I found your reflections really comprehensive and thoughtful. I resonate with your comment about how you have found yourself ‘doing’ some of this already and the course helped bring more shape to your thinking and practices. I agree and the course helped me in the same way.
I liked what you had to say about using the worship space more effectively and a way to do this is by using the space on the walls – projecting images for example. This is also a challenge for me in my church as we have very bare walls and by simply projecting images, this could bring another dynamic that could help people engage in more than words during the service.
In terms of preaching and using images, I am reminded of Leonard Sweet’s1 interview at the National Pastors Convention. His main challenge was to preach from an image base and not a words base and how metaphors can be so vital to this process. He called this the abductive method and used the acronym of EPIC (Experiential, Participatory, Image Base and Connectivity) to help shape one’s preaching. I believe this can be a real help to encourage us to preach from an image based perspective.
Keep up challenging yourself Peter as you walk with the Lord and carry other along the journey with you. Many Blessings,
Mike
1 Leonard Sweet, The Metaphor Moment (Part One), National Pastors Convention, http://nationalpastorsconvention.com/2002/resources/articles/metaphor1.htm
Hi Peter.
I resonate with your comment about DJing, in particular the idea of subverting the sample in your new mix. I agree that it is not necessarily easy to do, and that some people may not understand what you are doing, which in turn may lead to difficulties. It feels risky. However, I wouldn't want you to abandon it altogether.
You mentioned George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" as an example of a text you suspect some people would find threatening and perhaps inappropriate. Around 1977 (before I had any desire to have anything to do with a faithful response to Jesus) I was taken to 'Rock Mass' somewhere in Adelaide. The only thing I remember about that event (except that we went to the Pie Cart afterwards...clearly I was more interested in food than religion) was that one of the songs used was “My Sweet Lord”. I was pretty into George Harrison at the time, so it made an impact on me. I recall that they left out the Hare Krishna refrain, and I thought it was an OK rendition. The thing for me was that I didn't have any idea about comparative religions, but I did like what they did with the song enough to remember 30 years later that they had a song that I could relate to. Did it lead me to the true God? Probably not. Did it have an impact? Definitely. Was it a good impact? Who can say? I certainly indulged deeper in sin between that time and when Jesus finally revealed himself to me in a way that I could understand and respond to. But on the other hand, we do believe that small seeds planted can be used by God to grow into genuine faith one day.
I'm sure that you will be able to find ways to carefully and creatively remix cultural samples, even things that in many ways stand opposed to the Way of Christ, as we explore DJing further. There is a lovely example of this in Steve Taylor's book The out of bounds church where he tells of a worship experience in which a Joan Osborne song was used. "When the worship leader, acting as worship DJ, mixes Joan Osborne and the Christian understanding of Incarnation, we find sampling the perfect tool for creating a new understanding of the gospel. ‘What if God was one of us?’ sneers Joan. ‘God is one of us,’ is the quiet affirmation of the DJ. The words of the [liturgy] subvert Osborne’s notion of God as a stranger on the bus by speaking of God as companion…” I wish you well as you explore ways to sample culture and remix it subversively to powerfully communicate the gospel of Jesus.
Cheers,
Ian.
Reference: Steve Taylor, The out of bounds church, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2005, p. 146.
Hello again Peter.
In your post you wrote about art and visual material as a feature of post-modern ministry, saying that it could be OK so long as it served as an aide and not a distraction to the sermon. If I have understood you correctly, you operate with the understanding that what you have to say when you are preaching is the most important thing going on at that moment in the worship event, and that everybody present is (or at least ought to be) completely focussed on what they are hearing from you. I’d like to challenge that on two levels.
Firstly, given that there are multiple ways that people learn, not everybody will be able to take in what they hear from you. Those who are more visual will be learning from something other than your voice anyway. Even the bare walls will speak to some people more than the words of a preacher. They will ‘hear’ from the architecture, the seating, the clothing of the worship participants, light and shadow in the worship venue, and from whatever décor there is. And so I would ask, could not, for these people, the art actually be the sermon?
From the outset, it must be acknowledged, with Justin Paton, that you’ve got to find an artwork worth looking at. Once suitable works have been sourced, they can become for some worshippers a way to encounter Jesus in a more life-giving way than an aural sermon experience. It may be, however, that some people, even visual learners, will need to be taught how to look at the artwork. Paton suggests, for example,
If you’re troubled by an apparent lack – not enough colour, not enough imagery – try turning the doubt into a question. What would an artist have to gain by losing these things? What is he or she inviting you to notice in their absence? You may feel previously unnoticed aspects of a painting emerging with a new sharpness
or
If a work doesn’t feel as if it’s for you, try imagining the person it is for. At the very least, you will have stepped outside the circle of your accustomed tastes. You might even find yourself enjoying it out there.
Giving people the tools for looking at a work of art is like teaching someone to read, in that it opens up a whole realm of knowledge and understanding, and that realm includes knowing Jesus more fully. By detailing the meaning to be found in Richard Harries opens the door not just to understanding the particular paintings covered in his book, but also to looking for and finding meaning in artworks he does not.
I do not believe, however, that the meaning of a work should always be explained, as Steve Taylor did with Graham Sutherland’s Noli Me Tangere in his Easter 07 sermon, although this is one way that an artistic expression of the gospel may be encountered. It may be that a picture of a work of art could be projected during the sermon with no reference made to it in the sermon text, allowing the gathered people to make of it what they will. Perhaps it will, as you suggested, amplify the spoken word as an aide. But perhaps it could be juxtaposed alongside your message, as an expression of the ambiguity and diversity often encountered within the Christian faith.
The second challenge I’d like to make is that you could give greater respect to your listeners; allow them to be discerning participants in the process of enfaithment. Projecting art works may distract some people from the content of your sermon, but it may connect them with the Word of God in a more particular way for them. Later in your post, when you wrote about Lectio Divina, you showed a high level of respect for the abilities of your people to make wise responses to the text as they enter into it. Why not extend the same honour to them as you preach?
I was struck by Si Smith when he said about traditional sermons, “so much of my church experience has been about controlling the message, nailing it down, finding the ‘true’ interpretation of the text, closing out the argument”. He offers a different perspective, one that trusts the audience to find the truth in a less restrictive format, when he speaks of the democratic, unpredictable, uncontrollable nature of art. He says art “should open things up, take you places, challenge your perception of things, startle you, get you thinking and wondering, engage your emotions, unsettle you.” The idea of opening the ministry of the Word up to more people entering into discovery creates a wealth of possibilities not available if they are constrained by concentrating on what the preacher has to say.
Gill Rowell samples D M Patte to present a much darker view of tightly constraining biblical interpretation to the preacher, saying
…exegesis can elevate the preacher to a privileged position of control; the presupposition is that ‘ordinary readers’ are not in a position to accurately discern the message of the text, for they do not possess the privileged information accessed by the researcher/teacher. There is a relationship of teacher/taught which, if wrongly applied, could lead to dictator/vulnerable, which if wrongly applied could lead to misleaders/misled.
Patte creates quite a chain of worst-case scenarios, starting from a preacher with all good intentions, but I think the conclusion is valid.
Peter, these two challenges I also level at myself. I know that my older people will be distracted by vision of a work of art if it is not integrated into the sermon and the feature that supports the gist of the message specifically identified and referred. I also know that my younger people need to be doing more than just listening. They need a multiplicity of enfaithing options during the sermon, so that they can ‘toggle’ from one to the other, taking what they can or will. I haven’t done it yet, and maybe I’ll never be game to, but what about having a song (yes with lyrics!) going at the same time as the sermon, so that the togglers can focus attention on that, then to the visual, then to the spoken, then to the architecture, then to…wherever they are going to get what they need for this moment of their life of faith.
Engagement with your post has been valuable for me, thanks Peter. Hope my comments are enriching for you.
Blessings,
Ian
References:
Justin Paton, How to look at a painting, 1st ed. Wellington, New Zealand: Awa Press, 2005, pp. 11, 110-111.
Richard Harries. The passion in art, Ashgate studies in theology, imagination, and the arts. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2004.
Steve Taylor, Easter Sunday Sermon. Delivered at Opawa Baptist Church, Christchurch New Zealand, 8th April, 2007 (Course Reader p. 39).
Si Smith, Interview on “40”, Emergingchurch.info Stories, February 2006, http//emergingchurch.info/stories/40/index.htm
Gill Rowell, The (Spiritual) @dventures of CyberCindy, Carlisle, Cumbria UK: Paternoster Press, 2003, p. 154.
Peter, I enjoyed and appreciated the honesty in your reflection. It’s true for those of us who are more conservative in the liberal mainline denominations that when we hear certain language we think ‘Oh No’ here we go again! I’m glad you stuck with it because Steve was saying something different.
One thing that I acknowledged in your reflection was the dangerous but creative path of Dj-ing and sampling. As you say using ‘My Sweet Lord’ could be used in a number of ways. It could be taken to mean that ‘Krishna’ is a ‘way’ and all paths lead to God; which I’m sure neither you nor I would endorse that approach. However, as you said it could be used to ‘amplify’ culture in a similar way that Christmas can be used. Christmas is full of secular trappings and misguided searches for meaning but it still provides an opportunity to engage with the community around the real meaning of Christmas. ‘My Sweet Lord’ could be used similarly as an example of the human beings’ search for God often ending up in the wrong places. Perhaps, you could sample the chorus and write new words for the verses or even a rap: now there’s a challenge Peter! I am reminded of how Charles Wesley took the contemporary tunes of his day and wrote Christian lyrics to them. Perhaps, sampling is not that new after all Sampling George Harrison might be a suitable ‘peg’ to catch the ‘spiritual tourist’ and lead them to a deeper place of reflection. It could be used quite effectively as ‘a redemptive portal’1)
Keep plugging away at it Peter.
Chris McLeod
1) Taylor, S 2005, The Out of bounds Church, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Pp 101 -129
G’day Peter,
I really enjoyed getting to know you a little while I was in Adelaide and I found that we had a number of points of connection; not the least being your ministry in a Uniting Church that is not too dissimilar from mine. Your reflections and blogs are very encouraging and you obviously a have a lot of experience to draw upon. However, I really enjoyed your description of the “kids talk” time in the services that you attend that “gave you permission to be different”.
Is it any wonder that the creativity that you are “allowed” to put into these short slots is more memorable for all age groups who attend the service than the traditional three point sermon? Writers for the emergent church like Baker challenge the traditions and habits that we develop around our services and even dispute the validity of the traditional sermon in our postmodern context.
The way in which Baker questioned all of the components of our worship services was breath of fresh air. By asking the question, “what would church be like if we did not have our traditional forms?”; it has opened a whole lot of new possibilities for me in a variety of ministry related areas. Heaven forbid if we actually did away with the sacred cows! But in reality these forms and traditions that we uphold are not contextual to our post-modern existence, in many cases they are not even biblical but rather as Bandy (2001) call them, “addictions” to old assumptions and “self destructive behaviour patterns which they do not even recognise.” (Bandy 2001:15)
I liked the fact that you were not overwhelmed by how you were going to get seventy plusses who live out the provider/client relationship, to suddenly become an example of a emergent congregation. Rather, you began with what they could understand, with storytelling and dialogue, to move the congregation gently out from the box that has been their understanding of church. Like you I am trying to move my congregation into a greater engagement around the text as the community doing theology together. However, each congregational context is unique and distinct and will have its own stresses as we introduce new (post-modern) methods, and these stresses need to be handled sensitively, but the growth both in the church community and the resulting engagement in the mission dei far outweighs the risks.
Keep up the good work mate!
Bless you,
Tim Winslade
References
Baker, J “Preaching – Throwing a hand grenade in the Fruit Bowl. Something has to change”, http://jonnybakerblogs.com/jonnybaker/text/Preaching.pdf
Bandy, T.G., “Kicking Habits – Welcome Relief for Addicted Churches”, Abingdon press, Nashville. 2001
#2
Hi again Peter,
I was thinking a bit more about your reflection and I noted with a smile some of your pre-conception about the course and Steve Taylors book. Like you, I was a little surprised by this “southern Baptist”, whose postmodern way of approaching and presenting the biblical text managed to keep the text in focus and did not substitute methodology for faith.
Many of my encounters with these “creative expressions” of church have been big on creativity but lacking in depth. However, I wonder now if it was my preconceptions to what I considered to be the right way or “truth” (Johnson 2003) that were the problem rather than watered down content. Rather than allow myself to play with differences I treated subversion with hostility as it did not fit my model.
I guess this is the concept of DJing at work, pushing the boundaries of our box so we will think (Baker) and discover new ideas, to allow, as Si Smith (2006) states, “room for the spirit to blow”. The more I allow myself to be prodded and provoked, much the way Jesus did with his audiences, the more I will be able to model these concepts to community in which I serve.
The trouble is, when the response to new ideas is reactionary, by anxious people locked in habitual patterns of behaviour, it is very easy to react by withdrawing from the battle and to allow the anxious people to have their way. But is that God’s way? Jesus model of leadership was to stay committed to the Father’s plans, even in the face of opposition. We obviously need to be sensitive to the story and needs of our older church members, who were formed in modernity and think along that familiar track (Baker), because they find postmodernism unsettling at the very least. Roxburgh and Romanuk (2006:7) call this era in which we live a time of “discontinuous change”, categorised by disruptions to our expectations and challenging our assumptions of the future. This time in history is transformational, there already been several events of this last decade that have changed the we think and old methodology will no longer work.
Thus, the creative and imaginative methods proposed and modelled by Steve during this course are extremely important because now more than ever our communities need to engage with the living word that points in Johnson’s (2003) opinion to the larger story of our human existence that is yet to be finished.
Bless you,
Tim Winslade
References
Baker, J “Preaching – Throwing a hand grenade in the Fruit Bowl. Something has to change”, http://jonnybakerblogs.com/jonnybaker/text/Preaching.pdf
Johnson, W.S., “Reading the Scriptures faithfully in a Post Modern Age” in The Art of Reading Scripture, edited by Davis, E.F., & Hays, R. Eerdmans Grand Rapids, MI 2003.
Roxburgh, A.J., & Romanuk, F., “The Missional Leader – Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World”, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 2006.
Smith, S, Interviews on “40”, Emergingchurch.info Stories, February 2006, http://emergingchurch.info/stories/40/index.htm
I can identify with your hesitation in regard to story telling in terms of inexperience and lack of confidence. I appreciated the guidance we received in class and the suggestion of drawing a few frames of images or words which would help prompt our story telling. Pollerman and Vincent (2001) also provide worthwhile instruction in regard to preparing the teller and the story. To spend time visualising the ‘inner landscape’ from which to tell the story, to capture the image, smells, extra activity and characters in our imagination, gives rise to a depth and richness that I think would be difficult to discover otherwise. It is obvious, but again helpful, that these authors highlight the importance of being aware of the audience, their age and expectations, so that the story is modified accordingly. I think story telling becomes exciting when the listeners are invited to use their imaginations and engage with the story. These writers also suggest that working with the biblical narrative in this way ‘offers levels of insight and aspects of interpretation which cannot be exhausted’ (p76). Like you, I consider that this mode of communicating the Gospel message is well worth our efforts. ‘A story well told becomes a seed well sown’ (p76).
References:
Pollerman, S & Vincent, P 2001, 'Stories, Stories Everywhere: Good Practice for Storytellers', in Barnabas, Oxford, pp. 64-76.
Dear Peter
I think we need to be interested in trendy churches in the sense that the purpose of our existence is to glorify God and make Him known, and so a trend towards rather than away from the community of God is a very good thing. You probably meant that you are not interested in hollow hype, and actually I think many many post-moderns are themselves tied of hype and well-dressed empty shells. So we need to be enriching or soothing or both and reflect a little of God's own depth and width and height.
If we are neither 'hot nor cold' as the writer of Revelation put it we will be spat out (Rev 3:14-22).
I enjoyed sharing the week with you Peter, especially creating the Postcard. It was fascinating the way in which each of us was able to contribute something of our selves to the finished product using our different creative gifts. It was a living example of Post-modernism.
I appreciated the way in which you raised concerns about the way in which ‘creative form’ has been linked to ‘creative theology’. Like you, I have spent time in church that could be described as Post-modern in its ministry style, and seen first hand the danger that seeking relevance can lead to ‘drift’ from biblical to non-biblical and finally to un-biblical use of texts and the ways in which the use of art and contemporary forms and ‘relevance’ became more important than the preaching of the whole counsel of God.
Your early comment with regard to applying some of the insights gained in the course to your own ‘fairly traditional setting … with wisdom and gentleness’, resonates with one of the main tenets of Postmodernism, gaining entry into the world of those partaking in the sermon (Johnston, p68ff) – even if those listening are not themselves Post-modern in their thinking. It would be easy to get carried away with enthusiasm in exploring ways to use Post-modern methods of communication without the wisdom to consider our setting. If our community is full of modernity thinkers, then surely the forms of our message must be equally sensitive to their familiar contexts of propositional and logical presentation of Christian doctrine?
Blessings, Lesley
G. Johnston 2001, Preaching to a Postmodern world, Baker Books, Michigan
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