As I wrote yesterday, I participated in an online conference called The Nines, put on by the Leadership Network. The conference was free and open to anybody. I was relatively pleased with it, and given a different set of circumstances, I would no doubt have made more of an effort to watch all nine hours. I did about half of that. Partly because nine hours is a long time to sit in front of a computer and partly because I was feeling guilty that I was ignoring my family in the next room.
I was able to see about three of the seven or so presenters I was hoping to see, which was disappointing, and the topics weren’t as engaging as I was hoping for. They spoke about:
- Time
- Staff
- Family
- Money
- Vision
- Discipleship
- Grace
- Health
- Preaching
and unfortunately, not enough was new for me to justify sticking it out. This isn’t to say there was anything wrong, or that they weren’t unique. There was something else at work. There was a sheen of predictability to it.
When an artist records an album on only a couple of takes, leaving in the stray noises and the hiss of the analog, their is something alive about it, isn’t there? Hearing an album by The Ramones, Rolling Stones, or The Clash sound immediate and imperative! This is now!And when an artist records an album with a slick producer, and all of those imperfections are removed and the sound is smoothed out, it is really easy to listen to, isn’t it? But it is a cooler sound, a more distant one. It sounds slick and polished and a bit unnatural.
Many of the presenters, used to preaching at a nondenominational or a baptist church, on a stage, seemed so polished, and yet the material was
- Just preach Jesus
- Date your wife
- Exercise
It was missing something, you know? It was missing those warmer temperatures. That sense of the imperative about ministry. That sense that our vocations matter and that what we are doing in this crazy thing of following Jesus isn’t some show.
I only took a few notes, some of which I posted yesterday. But here’s the one cool thing that I’m taking away (again, I’ve heard this before): the preaching committee. This is the group that gets together to go through the Scripture and talk about it. What is it saying, what do we cover, how should we cover it. This is done collaboratively and ahead of time. In my own ministry, this will come to life as the congregation’s “lay” preachers are raised up and in connection with weekly Bible study and the congregation’s reading of the lectionary before Sunday morning. The whole parish, involved in discerning what Scripture is speaking, rather than helping me polish a sermon.
Because, in the end, isn’t that the point of the exercise?
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