Ben Sternke

Field notes on life and mission with God after Christendom

Preaching

“Learning Commons” on Saturday

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This Saturday I am heading to Chicago with a couple members of our team to participate in a "learning commons" called Seeing Missional Communities hosted by Life on the Vine.

It will consist of four brief presentations on different aspects and challenges to missional churches, with lots of time devoted to discussion and questions and conversation and prayer. I’m looking forward to the day, and will likely blog many of the thoughts from the day. Part of how I process ideas is by blogging them, actually. And then I can further process and refine ideas as you interact with me through comments, so everybody wins, pretty much.

The topics of discussion for Saturday are as follows:

  1. Leadership as multiple and bi-vocational
  2. Why we must do liturgy and do it in an accessible and artful way
  3. Preaching to fund the new reality of the mission of Christ
  4. The struggle for missional house fellowships in the suburbs

I’m excited to be part of this, and discern the implications for the new community/service we are "seeding" here in Fort Wayne (which we still need a name for, ridiculously enough – any new ideas?)

The Drama of the Christ vs. the American Dream

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I won’t go into tons of detail on Kevin Vanhoozer’s talk this afternoon on the Drama of the Christ, but I will give you a brief synopsis and a couple interesting thoughts that grabbed me.

He talked about the power of story-telling as a way of making sense of life and forming cultures and communities, giving entertaining examples from advertising and the cult of Star Trek. Then he went on to calling evangelicals to see the over-arching drama of the Bible as the controlling factor in our theology (and preaching and teaching etc etc). It was very much like some of what I’ve read from Tom Wright, who says that a sense of mission flows from an understanding of where we’re at in the story – and realizing that we are part of God’s story (not that God became part of my story)… this takes us beyond moralistic platitudes and into the realm where we must think and imagine and exercise wisdom and be formed as God’s people. Good stuff.

One interesting point for me: he argued that "drama" was the best term for talking about the narrative of Scripture, because "story" is simply the substance of a person’s life or a sequence of events, "narrative" is a certain way of telling that story, but "drama" is the story indwelt and embodied, acted-out with others. Dramas show not just tell, and this gets across the need for our involvement. This is not God’s story that we simply sit around and enjoy, it is God’s story that we embody, that we act out on the stage of the world, in our liturgy and in our lives.

His conclusion was that our call was to hold forth the drama of the Christ as the true story of the world, as opposed to the competing stories (which are how we modern people do idolatry). His specific statement was that we ought to "kill the American dream and live the drama of Christ." The American dream is 2.2 kids, an SUV, comfortable life and income, eating out once a month, etc… and God has his place as the provider of these blessings… instead we are called to live out the Jesus drama.

Church then becomes revolutionary theater, reconciliatory drama, in which we are all participants.

The primacy of the biblical narrative

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I’ll write more later, but I am currently in Chicago attending the 2007 Ancient Evangelical Future conference in Chicago. Kevin Vanhoozer spoke this afternoon on "The Drama of the Christ" – kind of a very short paper based on his book The Drama of Doctrine. Scot McKnight speaks tonight, then Edith Humphrey tomorrow morning.

Part of the fun of the conference has been how small it is (probably only 150 people in the room), so there’s a lot of interaction with the speakers, and there’s also a panel (the speakers plus a few others). It’s very conversational and engaging.

I’m here because this year’s conference is all about the primacy of the biblical narrative – I believe that idea has a lot of relevance to where the church needs to go in terms of how it tells God’s story, and how we think about our lives fitting into that story, how we preach and teach, etc, etc. It’s been very stimulating so far. It’s time to eat, though, and get back so I don’t miss Scot.

On preaching’s purpose

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From Brueggemann’s book Finally Comes the Poet, on how preaching functions in transformation:

"I have found myself discovering that mostly I do not need more advice, but strength. I do not need new information, but the courage, freedom, and authorization to act on what I already have been given in the gospel."

"…obedience follows imagination. Our obedience will not venture far beyond or run risks beyond our imagined world. If we wish to have transformed obedience, then we must be summoned to an alternative imagination, in order that we may imagine the world and ourselves differently."

"The sermon is not normally the place for concrete moral admonition… The sermon is the place where the church is freed to imagine what it would be like to be intentional about mission and to embrace in our imagination acts of discipleship that we are not yet ready to accept in practice… Reflection about obedience in the sermon is more effective and compelling when it is bold and imaginative, well beyond our present capacity for action."

Preaching is "world-making", in other words; creating a world through words that evokes the possibilities of the kingdom of God, telling The Story as an alternative to the stories we’ve been sold. Preaching should awaken in people the belief that another reality is possible, the courage to imagine it, and the resolve to act on it.

Yes!

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Yes
As usual, I think Seth G might be on to something.

Instead of concentrating on winning over the nay-sayers to your cause / business plan / message / school budget, simply find a way to get the people who are likely to say yes.

"My school realizes this. They hold the spring concert the same night
at the budget vote. 200 parents at a concert are only a few steps away
from the voting booth in the gym. Starbucks realizes the same thing
when they put their stores directly in the path of yuppies who like
spending $4 for a cup of coffee. You don’t find many Starbucks at bus
stations.

"Instead of focusing on arguing with people who say no, it might be easier to get near the people who like to say yes.

I wonder if something similar could be said about church-planting and evangelism. When Jesus sent out his disciples in Matthew 10 he told them:

"As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. . .  And if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your message, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or that town." (v 7-8, 13)

In other words, don’t bend over backwards trying to convince the nay-sayers. If people aren’t open to the message, move on and find some people who are. Find the ones who are ready to say yes. You don’t win brownie-points for spending all your time on a "hard case." Concentrate your efforts on those who want to hear, on those who are ready to respond.

What do you think? Is this an appropriate principle for missional church? Or a piece of "worldly" wisdom to be thrown out? Are Seth Godin and Jesus saying the same things?