One thing I've never heard someone talk about that has changed everything to me: Rob Bell

One thing I’ve Never Heard Someone Talk about that has changed everything to me
Rob Bell

“Chocolate covered turd”

looks pleasing until you take a bite…

“Mixed blessing”

Difficult to shake

even with noble intentions—limp away

The 9 and the 1

10 pieces of feedback

9—amazing/positive

1—negative

walk away with the 1…

Not just content of negative—should be able to shake…

Acts 21

4,000 revolting terrorists

Friends can laugh it off, but it’s about me…

Inner dialogue

wobbly

tape that plays

Comments that are not conversation

“you look so skinny…”

Leadership—open self up to criticism

“The official committee for doctrinal purity, orthodox rhetoric and general theological correctness”

self appointed, of course…

Timing is off…

right after a sermon/something big

Beaten down…

big things

Death by paper cuts

easy to name exhaustion/burnout from big things

even more painful—little things

build up

adds up until we don’t know it…

As a result…
Hold back

took a few shots and make us think twice

If I put myself out there…

prophetic edge—back off

back off creative

once you share something personal, it’s public and it becomes everyone’s

callous builds up

Lists/labels

“those people”

Keep them back

to protect ourselves

based on perceptions

Revenge

passive

I don’t feel like giving my best

punish

withdraw

Active

“I’ve had some conseling appointments with them…”

causing harm

In order to stay in the game/continue to have something to say…

Become masters of forgiveness

actual people in actual church

for comment/email/off handed comment

Can’t just be a student

Name the wound

“I don’t get to control how people respond”

That’s just where they are and here’s where I am and that’s just the way it is.

“That hurt”

get to the heart of it

exposure/analyzed

Forgiveness—letting go

Sheep have teeth and they use them…

Proverbs 26:11

Some people are toxic and you don’t have to be there when they return to their vomit

Okay to have boundaries with toxic people

especially with toxic people

Can be an ocean of compassion and grace and have boundaries

Titus 3:10

warn divisive people once and warn them a 2nd time

You are not an ecclesiastical punching bag

You are a resource

You are a gift

Congregations take their unhealthy out on you because they pay you

Luke 12:13

I’m tired of people like you…

It’s not my job

JC clear about who he is

Okay to guard resource to point people to resurrection

We spend a disproportionate hours on people who don’t have an intent on following JC anyway…

Love your neighbor as yourself

There’s got to be a better way

Okay to say—I understand you have vested interest in this, but because I have been charged with these tasks, I have to say no…

Forgiveness is being freed from

has a cost

involves a pattern

death into resurrection

death is painful…

Luke 23

suffer agony of wound

this hurts because…

Go all the way to the bottom of it and it hurts

will lead to resurrection

Tim Keller

Forgiveness means refusing to make them pay for what they did

Absorbing debt

Yes, but is a death that leads to resurrection instead of life long living death of bitterness and cynicism

These people are humans and humans do things

but JC invites us into a new humanity

Parker Palmer

The cross says “the pain stops here”

The way of the cross is a way of absorbing pain not passing it on, a way that transforms pain from destructive impulse into creative power.

When JC accept the cross, his death opened up a channel for the redeeming power of love.

Freed from identity wrapped up in how it is received

Give gift that God gave

Practice it—Christ pattern

Who do you/I need to forgive?

Encounter?

Church?

Committee?

Loud layperson?

What commitment?

Do I need to wake up?

System killed wonder & awe

Playing by party line/rules

sold out

job vs. disciple

Restructuring time/schedule

Reclaim art of sermon

You Are the Medium: Shane Hipps

You Are the Medium

Shane Hipps

Who we/you/I am as a person is the message

All exegetical stuff/words are only in our minds

1.) Body
God created body with life

God embodied Godself

3 bodies/aspects

physical

energetic

essential

Physical

5 senses

Measure

Deal with

Gifts & limits

Energetic

can’t be seen

emotional—felt/not one of 5 senses

love = warm

anger = wound

sadness= dark tide

fear = wall/tense

thinking

creativity

Problem solving

Sense when someone isn’t with you

energy follows attention

Sexual energy—root energy

connected with creativity

vitality & life

drive to create life

connecting things

creativity, life, connection

Gifts & limits of energetic bodies

unique energetic thumbprint

what is my energy like?

celebrities have incredible energy

Energy can experience our energy differently

through radiant light

through comedy

presence—gravitas

fill a room

Essential

Essence

6 year old body & emotions are gone, but something is still there

Never changes

unlimited/boundless/always free

as you become more conscious

have nothing to lose

Romans 8:11

Spirit that raised JC—raised you!

John 17:22-23
JC gives us glory—we have what he has perfected in unity

experience life as 1 ocean/ 1 body/1 entity

Part of something bigger

JC as master

Physical

fasting

celibacy

etc…

Energetic

Anger

Weeping

Felt energy depart

Essential

our responses aren’t different, he just knew how to access it

“Father forgive them…”

Physical—land—can disfigure

Energy—sea—can displace

Essential—sky—can’t hold

Practices to connect with energetic boy

Physical is a conductor to the energetic

Unkink—posturing

You are God’s flute—letting God’s breath go through you to play Divine music

We are imitative creatures

whatever energy we gift, community will receive

Our energy can help to open people to God

Not just the way in can be used, but also misused

We have a shadow

deny & disown

call the enemy

When we disown it, it overtakes us

Acknowledge it!

Uncover it

therapy

resources

thing that you despise/fear most in others—that’s usually yours!

Own

8 mile test/practice

find that thing

try them on—they fit great

be the best at them

own them

Are you still breathing? Yes.

Does God still love you? Yes.

Is it a surprise to God? No.

Does it disturb God? No.

Why is it/does it you?

Essential

Can’t develop; can only work with access you have

Essence is something you must

eat and know

not

read and believe

Breath

physical—draw 02 in

energetic—conduct/move/smooth

essential—awareness/experience

Breath & Spirit—always the same thin in ancient languages

Receive the Holy Breath

What is God like?

contemplate nature of breath

no judgement in breath

only life

Breath of God—danced with in you

Can’t store/hoard

Can’t give

Will eventually stop

In essence—place of unending

peace

wisdom

compassion

endless supply

draw out and give away

Develop uncommon connection to essence

No such thing as a good preacher…only a good person preaching.

For Those with Ears to Hear: Parables & the Lost Art of Provocation: Peter Rollins

For Those with Ears to Hear: Parables & the Lost Art of Provocation

Peter Rollins

Spiritual intercourse—creating little ones of you running around…

Substantive change

Neo-fundamentalist—Jesus as cage fighter

impotent violence

Violence against principalities

Mother Theresa violent against systems

MLK ruptured racism/lens

System—not what you see, but the lens you see through

Revelation = revealing?

What does Christianity claim when it claims to be true?

not just info about God

Speak God…ancient desire

Lilith (Adam’s 1st wife)

if you can name God, you can have divine power

Moses

schooled in Egyptian theology

Obsession with the name of God

“Let’s speak God”

Theology—queen of sciences

Anselm:
It exists in mind, not in reality (some believe about God)

It exists in mind and reality (some believe about God through JC)

3rd level

Exists in reality, but can’t exist in mind

hypernimoty—overflowing with info

God is trauma—event that happens that you can’t conceptualize
God is in such excess

Bible—evidence of trauma
of course there will be break down when the infinite comes into the finite!

Is the truth of God in metaphor or in the Creator?

Preaching & prophecy is born out of trauma

Mystics—write about what can’t write about

Name God—creating God in your image

Does JC create a picture of God or tear it up?

Homer Simpson’s 1st prayer…

Peoples’ “gods” look like them…

God is not a patch of meaning on our wounds, but God is the wound of meaning

Can’t have God’s name!

Presence is my name…

Grace is my name…

God’s name names us

baptism—brought into God’s name

Incarnation—mystery lives among us

not yet is here

mystery doesn’t disappear

We are a mystery to ourselves

What is revelation?

give us knowledge and we do it

truth bring life

Incomprehension

Bedazzlement

Transformation

Revelation
Incomprehensible

apocalypse

Can’t write it

Bedazzlement

world is rocked

experience of not knowing how to experience

Transformation

Change!
Substantially reconfigured

Revelation—reveals & conceals

“Hymns to Swear By”
Maranatha

You are my strength, but I am weak

Maranatha

I’ve given up sometimes when I was tired

…

I’ve f-ed it up so many times

Alleluia

I curse the day when I received the light

when you deceived me

I find my home in Babylon

I’m in exile

Should worship not reflect lamentations & doubt & ambiguities?!?!

Jesus is my boyfriend…

Sermon shouldn’t be descriptive but performative

We are those people who are trying to bring people into revolution

Parables perform—rupture people

of the day

needs to be done!

Psycho analysis

blaming someone else

taking responsibility

1st name of people of God

Israel

wrestle

fight and overcome

Preaching

dis-course

theo-poetics

seduces

transforms

changes

Name God as Father, but not how I know it

Images= ashes to God

Sermons

subversive

provocative

Christianity—grounded & descriptive

Judeo-Christianity

service to earth

practical nature

God so loved the world—God forsook heaven

Wall-E

Mother Theresa—saint of darkness

Earth ≠obstacle of heaven

Paradoxically opened up

I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.

Fumbling Around with Your Radar: Rob Bell

Fumbling Around with Your Radar
Rob Bell

Where do sermons come from?
Radar

Buckets

Chunks

Marinade

Radar
“the blank screen”---Sunday is coming!
From having to say something to having something to say

“I can’t wait to share this!”
What if you gave the Spirit 6 months to move instead of 14 hours?

“God must love you…”

I get to do this to glorify God

Sermon prep is:
All around us; all the time; everywhere; everybody
Vs.
Tuesday @ 9

Genesis 28

Surely God is in this place and I’m not aware of it

Faith is expanding consciousness to see the Lord is in this place

Faith is waking up to see God is already in this place

Jesus wants to teach us how to show up because he’s already there!

John 5

Always @ work

Preacher has radar

to presence and living work of Spirit

hypersensitive to world around

Point it out and put words on it

Life is preaching to me all the time

God’s other name is surprise

1.) Life
2.) Text

1.) Life—exegete life
Write it

Take a picture of it

Save it

Ask for it

Get it

Clip it

Tear it out

Store it

Mark it

Remember it

WITH NO EDIT BUTTON!

Don’t know why

Don’t know how it will fit

Don’t know when
JUST CAPTURE IT!

2.) Text
Memorize—now just with you; start to stand out

Inhale—what have others said?

Words—key words; used in other places; what tense; do words have pictures?

Location—where? What else happened there?

Culture

Concepts—mentioned elsewhere? Anyone else talk about this?

Stories—is this a story? Are there others?

Time—what else was going on?

Pictures

Actions—see what we’re reading

Connections

Sometimes the best stuff doesn’t come from Christians

Where God Was Born by Bruce Feiler

When we define ourselves by what we’re not, we’re on a dangerous path…

If I couldn’t use any biblical or religious language, how would I describe this?

to a child?

to a Martian?

without words?

using only drawings and pictures?

using only actors?

If it’s Christian, it’s going to be fully human

see the world with Jesus’ perspective

What’s the thing behind the thing

The mystery behind the mystery?

The truth behind the truth?

Enact it

Perform it

Show it

Do it

Ignore it

Circle around it

Hand it out

Radar

Buckets

Chunks

Marinade

Buckets
Capture something

one idea/fragment/insight/sentence

one a week

no pressure, no time frame
Revisiting regularly—re-read

intention & attention

Series

Some buckets grow into chunks

If it isn’t hot, drop it—move one (may come back?)
Accumulating vs. arranging

Something taking root in you

Ask people to write their stories

get name, number, e-mail

People in church have gifts and skills

they’re just waiting for you to ask!

Marinade

Certain things have to have time to soak

The Fig Tree & The Failure of Language: Rob Bell

The Fig Tree & the Failure of Language

Rob Bell

A sermon has an engine

an energy source

A sermon comes from somewhere

Why are you saying this?

Why do we need to hear this?

Why should we care?

Why do you care?

What’s the spark, impulse, insight, twist, revelation, truth, picture, reality that has compelled you to say these things at this time?
….in 30 seconds

1.) Moment
2.) Movement
3.) Mystery

Matthew 21

Fig Tree—withered
Fig tree = symbol of Jewish religious leadership

Moment---
curse fig treeAdd historical contextAdd details (people fill in consequences and implications themselves)

2 Kings 5
Namaan—leprosy—wash 7 x’s in JordanNo God except Israel
Localized deitiesconverts to expanded consciousness
Rimmon—go in peace/shalom/blessing/wholeness

Following JC gets complicated/fuzzy

“Ambiguous/fuzzy Sunday”

Moment—
Following God puts us in awkward situations because maybe that’s where God wants us

Movement

Genesis 27

Jacob = Esau

Genesis 32

name = Jacob

Movement—
Finally comfortable in own skin

Matthew 7:6

Pearls to pigs

Matthew 7:1

Do not judge

Matthew 6:25

Don’t worry

Matthew 6:32

God knows

Movement—
Life in kingdom is about entrusting life to God

Way of JC and trusting others to God’s care

Judging—correct/contempt/rebuke/control/shame

Pearl = good; Pig = unable to appreciate the pearl

Psalm 1

Blessed do not walk

stand

sit

Movement—
Walk with something

Stand around

Sit—harder to get away; got comfortable

Mystery

Philippians 1:6
Began Good work—completion

Genesis
Beginning

Good

Completed

When you opened yourself up to the redeeming love, you opened yourself up to the Creator of the universe.

Exodus 20

not covet—internal

10th—reward; if you follow the 1st 9, you won’t want anyone else’s life

Revelation 4

throne/lamb

Psychology of worship—gather once a week to be reminded there is a center and a throne and I’m not on it.

Picture with infinite depth

Worship started infinity ago…we’re just joining now!

Everything in a sermon is related to everything else in the sermon
Name the parts

know the parts

be aware of the parts

feel the parts

step outside the parts

Arranging in a purposeful way.

@ end of story—where are the people?

Naming particular parts
Reading the passage

information

story

question

Picture

Rant

Action

Insight—(sermon opens up to critique & truth & repentance)

Observation—have you noticed?

Statistic

Declaration—here is what we’re about

Invitation

Knowing and arranging a flow

How long can I keep people in this?

Tension = people are listening

“I know I’m in good hands”

Speed—how fast? How slow?

Intensity—If you don’t care, how are we supposed to?

Tension—what is this about?

Pacing

Tone

Posture

Arc—where is this going? Where does this land?

Openers that overwhelm—(can’t recover from it)
No rules other than knowing what you’re doing
Storyboard

End ≠accumulating content

Storyteller knows what to tell and what not to tell

These parts have worked on you…

You have wrestled with these parts…

lived it so much you are in tune with it

Tension is your friend, just know how it behaves

Can’t memorize it all, but can memorize parts

Give each part a name—names create a trigger

Physical outline (objects)

“This thing just worked on me”

what is the nugget?

Every time you gain something, you lose something

A sermon creates a picture, a space, an image, an experience, an encounter, a world, a place that allows people to find themselves in it

Focused and yet open

Said and yet unsaid

Defining and yet imaging

Resolute and yet unresolved

Creating space = gift you give

Not everyone in the congregation is at the same place!!

A sermon should be where everyone is met where they are & invited to the next place

mystery & art & discipline

We want people to be here, but they can’t get there because they’re back there

This is about that…which is really about that…which is…This! (find the thing behind the thing behind the thing behind the thing)

Meet people where they are!

Where is the redemptive moment?

Cathedral of words

Word goes forth & eac h person swears it was for them….

That was for me…

How Technology Shapes the Sermon: Shane Hipps

How Technology Shapes the Sermon

Shane Hipps

Christianity is fundamentally a communication event

God revealing Godself to the world

The methods may always change, but the message stays the same= not true!

The medium IS the message
“Our conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot for the content of any medium is the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.” ~Marshall McLuhan

We become what we behold.

thinking patterns mirror the pattern of the media.

Printing press --linear

changed the way we think

created synthesis of Gospel

Apologize for sins + Believe in JC = Go to heaven

Digital age is hall of mirrors
Can’t jump too far ahead because you need to know how you got there

print age to electronic age

1800’s = electronic age

Photograph--recast world as icon

Too many images--lose ability for abstract thought

Images and words do not convey the same message

Word = abstract, sequential, rational, left brainimage= concrete, holistic, intuitive, right brain
Images pin the logical side of our brain to the back of our skull

Essays invite questions, debate, critique

West= syllogismEast = yin-yang (image)—unity of opposites
Moving from West to East

left brain to right brain
New technology = image based

:) = happy face or colon & parentheses?

Every letter in the alphabet has become an image for corporate America

Images always win

will remember an image more than words

Word expands imagination

Image hijacks imagination

Image creates shared experience

What does the image do?

What do the words do?

Unleash imagination? Do not use images

Shared experiences? Images!

Understand before you use.
_____
Image based

Experiantial

New Testament

Gospels--concrete, short, oral stories, middle ages, can be depicted in stained glass

Paul/Letters--Printing press, abstract, theological debates, stuff of the mind

Christian vs. Christ-follower

JC is center of gravity again

Paul interpreted through the lens of JC

Mark 2:22

wineskins

new wine & new wineskins

Before making judgments, become aware

First, understand before critique—we can use media rather than be used by media

Middle Ages
Center of worship = Eucharist

After Printing Press
Pulpit replaced table

Lecture Hall

Got information

Authority = how smart you are

sermons = 2 hours

dense, philosophical, theological, abstract

Broadcast era
Authority = attractiveness, likeability

TV studio format

concrete

Internet age
Coffee shop

Authority = ignored, communal, interactive

Conversational, dialogical

We don’t just live in one era

complexity--all stacked on top of one another

Never been harder to preach than now
________
The Art of Surprise
Keep them guessing because they can’t pay attention

Exegetical surprise
Context, language, history

5,000 years of scholarship

Questions—counseling the text

Answers
Know where to look

ATLA journals

Textweek

Commentaries

Rhetorical Surprise
Way getting to end is worth it

Lead into desert, make them thirsty, then give them water

Make something unfamiliar that may be familiar

Linguistic Surprise
Words like stones @ bottom of river = lose their edge

recharge words

New language to describe ancient concepts

what you put in, you get out

associative poets

A case: Water into wine
Rhetorical surprise:
It’s an odd miracle—why water into wine?
Wine = abundance (means something different today than then)

Exegetical surprise: John 2:6
6 stone water jugs ~ 30 gallons
Used for ceremonial washing
Wine kept in amphore—clay, specific designjars were stone, less porous, kept water cleaner
Violating religious practices

notice the container, not the content

Linguistic Surprise (So what?)
JC went out of his way to disrupt and offend religious practices to bring about joy

How limber is your soul? What doesn’t bend, breaks

The Art of Letting Go
Want to move and influence people

easier to counsel when divested from outcome

outcomes don’t matter (just offer fearlessly)

don’t need encouragement to breathe

pay no attention to how it’s going to land

free yourself

become more open and powerful
__________
Does it work?
People like it

Screens always win
Magnifying an image creates a celebrity and devalues priesthood of all believers

Prior to image, we had heroes

After images, we had celebrities (who are only known for being known)
Images turn us into something else

Rear projection—audiences process content in right brain

light reflection—audiences process content in left brain
No one knows why!?!

Twitter
Creates coffee shop atmosphere

creates simplicity

prevents complexity

Truth doesn’t have to be complex

Returning to the New: An Into to Transformance Art: Peter Rollins

Returning to the New: an intro to transformance art

Peter Rollins

“Life is lived forward and understood backwards” –Kierkegaard
Ikon
“non-member” card/class
take responsibility for self and spirituality

has to be someone who says they refuse to lead

we want a leader we can dominated so we can blame them when it doesn’t work
powerless evangelism
atheism for Lent--give up God and listen to critiques of the church

Convincing you is not the problem—you have to convince the social self

Preaching needs to convince the chickens/deeper self/social self
Ex:
Wayne Enterprises vs. Batman
Creating conditions -------------- fighting against conditions

The side of resistance provides air valves to continue
Revolution vs. insurrection
Revolution—changes the whole structure/radical change/transformation of structure
Insurrection—lives change here and now before it comes

Church as flash mob
Sermon about getting to the bowels

Belief through the other

professional mourners

canned laughter

if preacher believes, I don’t have to…

structure believes so you don’t have to

Conversion--re-birth

birth opens up to experience

God transforms how I interact with all the objects in the world

I don’t experience my life, it’s my life that allows me to experience

God is so immeninent that God is transcendent

To offend nobody, you have to offend everybody!

Suspended space: neither Jew or Greek, etc…

but engage in leaving behind everything

divest from everything

“If I know the color of your eyes, I don’t hear you”

Fight as friends, not enemies

Preaching should be performative not descriptive

Parables get beyond head and rupture the heart

Don’t want God to tell answer

transformed by engagement

blowing up expectations

Give salt to make people thirsty not water to quench their thirst

Expose the need

Seeking eternal life, not God

Best place to meet God is when you don’t need God

need is retro-active

never knew I needed you until I met you and now I don’t know how to live without you…

When someone is suffering they need someone to listen/hear

Get rid of false gods to see God

No one gives God but God

create space

Transformed into the image of God…God became human!

Stumble into the Divine

Christianity is a religion that critiques religion

Pyro-theology

“The only church that illuminates is a burning one”

consumed

should a church burn down sometimes?

Not about name-checking Jesus

Conversion is central--substantive change

Christianity promises substantive chance…if we’re lucky it happens in the church…

The Story We're Telling: Rob Bell

The Story We’re Telling

Rob Bell

Where & how you begin the story and where & and how you end the story shape and determine what story you’re setting.

*Genesis 1:11
Vegetation
Creaor distinct from creation
dasha--produce/sprout

progressive generativity --creation is going somewhere; dynamic, not static; tomorrow will be different than today

*Genesis 1:26-28

rada--rule
kabash--subdue

responsibility, stewardship

participatory, physicality

harmony w/in hierarchy

Creator - Co-creators (humans) -- Creation
Everything in its proper place

*Genesis 1:28, 22

Blessed

Barakhà bless

soil & Spirit are united

heaven and earth are one

there isn’t “somewhere else”

Whatever we love about life is in Genesis 1-2
Asthetics

organizaing

making things

naming

relationship/partnership

learning

worship

responsibility

exploration

The story starts here!!

The story ends here:
Revelation 21

new beginning

participatory

rivers…trees…city…

physical

rooted in earth
Starts with a garden-- ends with a city (organization of gardens)

progression of creation

*Genesis 3

disruption of Shalom (peace, health, wholeness between creation, others, self, & Creator)

Sin--any way I am disrupting shalom

rebellion against hierarchy (creator-co-creator-creation)

Looking to physical instead of God

Participation

Missing the mark

Genesis 3 ≠beginning

Genesis 3 ≠ ending
Sin--take seriously

properly aligned

Confession (yadhah) is admission, recognition, declaration & agreement
Repentance (t’shuva!) is return to proper place

The story is about God
renewing all things (Matt 19)
restoring all things (Acts 3)
reconciling all things (Colossians 1)

3--removal of sin

if Gen 3 = beginning, the drive is to get rid of problem
1-- restoration of shalom

if Gen 1 = beginning, removal of sin has a place within the story

3--what you aren’t
1--what you are
“You’re an abomination.” --that’s your good news?
3--disembodied evacuation

materiality ≠ issue

rebellion = issue

1--participatory physicality

bringing shalom
Will people be going up while God is coming down?

1.) John 2—water into wine
2.) John 4-officials son
3.) John 5--@ the pool
4.) John 6—bread
5.) John 6—water
6.) John 9—blind man
7.) John 11-Lazarus
a. 7 = creation (1st week of creation)
8.) John 20—Resurrection
a. 8 = 1st day of a new creation
--The story of JC resurrection beginning a new creation right here in the midst of this (old) one
--the story of JC resurrection is about God reaffirming the goodness of creation
--the story is about anticipating the coming day when heaven and earth are one again (heaven is where God is storing the earth’s future)
--step into eternal life now!
Business

exchange of goodswork/wage/needs

hopefully to further shalom

triple bottom line -profit, people, stewardship
Art

creative arranging

asthetics

impracticality = central purpose

reminds not all our worth is based on how good we are or how hard we wework

making things are already blessed—no need for a “Christian blessing”labeling system

God begins the story by separating light from dark (discernment)
Justice

God restoring all things

80% of world lives in sub-standard housing = not ordering creation

everything in proper place

natural part of story

restoration

A sermon, then is the continue insistence that through the resurrection of JC a whole new world is bursting forth right here in the midst of the old one.

A sermon, then is about helping people see this new creation with their own eyes

what you look for, you will find

A sermon, then brings hope rooted not in escape but engagement, not in evacuation but reclamation, not in leaving, but in staying and overcoming.

Resurrection begins here and now! Not someday

A sermon, then, is never surprised when grace, beauty, meaning, order, compassion, truth, and love show up in all sorts of unexpected people and places because it always has been God’s world, it is God’s world, and it always will be God’s world.

All truth is God’s truth

the whole world = tool box

act so our actions & consequences will live on in the new world

The Original Guerilla Theater: Rob Bell

The Original Guerilla Theater
Rob Bell
In a world of Twitter & Facebook, sermons will become counter-cultural.
2 questions people ask in regards to a sermon:
-Did you like it?
-Did they do a good job?
-But how did you (listener) do?
Sermon as propaganda -- telling people something they already know or in service of something elseSermon as concreteblock
“Pastor’s Hangover”
-Have you heard anything I’ve said?
Crickets vs. “That was the most powerful thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life!”
Give what you’ve got and give it over to God
-That was like the old ____
like we used to do it
assumptions in the room & you may have changed
celebrating past, but propelling into the future-Balancing expectations
endlessly evolving and changing

*Ezekiel 4
Go and do this in public so people can hear and see what I have for them.

Performance Art
Talk about JC in a compelling way
Guerilla theater
“What just happened?”
Actions that evoke
can talk all day long, but may need to do something

*Acts 4
had been with JC
Everything had changed

Witness
if you don’t share it, speak it, tell it, point to it, express it, preach it, you’ll spontaneously combust

*Jeremiah 20
can’t hold it in
*Jeremiah 2:14
This isn’t what God had in mind
Sermon as reminder
this isn’t what God has in mind…
you are better than this…

*Mark 1:15
Invitation-- Something huge is happening!
Sermon as invitation
the fresh word
implicit critique
making a statement about the old word
throwing the first punch

*Isaiah 52
in exile--Your God reigns
Sermon as sub-version
There’s another story…
there’s another narrative & it’s better…
there’s a better story…

*Luke 4
wanted to kill him!
Sermon as provocation
loaded language
warning
“Your actions are headed to a dark, dangerous place and I’m warning you…”

What is foreign, strange, and unwelcome may just be ahead of its time
When you preach, you open yourself up to the possibility of
Misinterpretations & confusion
and
truth & light & hope & repentance & desire & compassion & longing & revolution & confession & inspiration & comfort & solidarity & resurrection

*Acts 17
a mixed response to the sermon
If you do things that have never been done before, you might get strange looks

“And God said…”
Creation through spoken word
Words create new worlds
--thinking things & someone else said it & it opened up something new--I’m not crazy or alone
--tying the clouds together

Divine, redemptive work of wordsSermon has power to create new worlds
Theological--what is the story we’re telling?
Conceptual--homiletical architecture
Practical
Personal

Talks that start talks
--assumption that the person up front will fix it
--more about the 1st word
--not about ending, about starting
If you can resolve a sermon by the end of the sermon, you’ve missed it --incarnation
--flesh & blood
Preach not because you have to say something, but because you have something to say
Fight for space & create boundaries for space to create sermon

Poets, Prophets, & Preachers

I have 2 tickets/spaces available for Rob Bell's preaching conference July 5-7 available. Conference is in Grand Rapids, MI and more information can be found here. Tickets cost $125 + hotel costs. A group of 4 is already going, so expenses will be shared! 1st come, 1st served, please let me know ASAP!

Poets, Prophets, Preachers

I registered for Rob Bell's preaching conference: Poets, Prophets, Preachers and just found out that the registration cost actually covers 2 people! So, is there anyone who wants to join me with this? We can split everything!!