large chunks of scripture
It has been awhile.
I have been pondering this comment and question from Ben. I think it is a great question, and I am not sure I have any easy answers.
BTW - following on from your thought about having large chunks of scripture read out in church and re-installing that in our evening community I can report back that people have really taken to it and it's become a highlight of the service for me (and others I suspect) and as an aside to your post I have come across one recent frustration and that is people who say that they want "deeper teaching" in the service. As we explore that idea more I discover that they want more teaching on peripheral Scriptural themes rather than just constantly hearing the central gospel themes. My frustration comes when I don't feel like they/me/we have really got a grasp on "living out" as opposed to just "knowing" those central themes - do you keep banging away until people seem to get it and live it? Do you move on to other themes so that people don't get bored and perhaps they come back to asking themselves some of the questions you have posed here at a later date.
Christian faith has always seemed to me to be a fairly simple matter (though often challenging to live out), some people though seem to want to make it quite complicated and sometimes I wonder if that's a smoke screen of just knowing more stuff as a substitute for actually living the simple stuff well and allowing ourselves to be shaped by scripture.
Any thoughts?
Ben
After quite a bit of thought, I wonder if instead of preaching to the themes, we preach to the lectionary. In other words, let the Bible speak for itself. Joel Green, who is a New Testament Theologian (i.e. someone who tries to read the bible theologically, and vice-versa - he taught the course I took for the first half of the year) talks about the Bible converting peoples imagination, and the task fo the preacher is to help that conversion happen. Basically, rather than trying to teach people about the Bible, or the main themes, to allow people world view to be changed by the Bible. I am not sure if this is making any sense.
I think what I am trying to say is that we as preachers need to start with and deal with the passage/s for the day, on the passages terms, and not in terms of any themes, and to expect that as that passage was written for the church/people of God, and as we are the church/people of God, then that passage will speak to us. The corollary to that is in my experience those of us who read it often read scripture with the end pint already known. WE know what this passage is saying, and usually that is something that backs up our point of view. Scripture should nee be read like that, but should challenge us, mould us, take us further into God, even when we are taken far from what we thought was going on, and far from our comfort zone.
That is enough of a ramble, but a conversation about this would be good.
Peace.
John
I have been pondering this comment and question from Ben. I think it is a great question, and I am not sure I have any easy answers.
BTW - following on from your thought about having large chunks of scripture read out in church and re-installing that in our evening community I can report back that people have really taken to it and it's become a highlight of the service for me (and others I suspect) and as an aside to your post I have come across one recent frustration and that is people who say that they want "deeper teaching" in the service. As we explore that idea more I discover that they want more teaching on peripheral Scriptural themes rather than just constantly hearing the central gospel themes. My frustration comes when I don't feel like they/me/we have really got a grasp on "living out" as opposed to just "knowing" those central themes - do you keep banging away until people seem to get it and live it? Do you move on to other themes so that people don't get bored and perhaps they come back to asking themselves some of the questions you have posed here at a later date.
Christian faith has always seemed to me to be a fairly simple matter (though often challenging to live out), some people though seem to want to make it quite complicated and sometimes I wonder if that's a smoke screen of just knowing more stuff as a substitute for actually living the simple stuff well and allowing ourselves to be shaped by scripture.
Any thoughts?
Ben
After quite a bit of thought, I wonder if instead of preaching to the themes, we preach to the lectionary. In other words, let the Bible speak for itself. Joel Green, who is a New Testament Theologian (i.e. someone who tries to read the bible theologically, and vice-versa - he taught the course I took for the first half of the year) talks about the Bible converting peoples imagination, and the task fo the preacher is to help that conversion happen. Basically, rather than trying to teach people about the Bible, or the main themes, to allow people world view to be changed by the Bible. I am not sure if this is making any sense.
I think what I am trying to say is that we as preachers need to start with and deal with the passage/s for the day, on the passages terms, and not in terms of any themes, and to expect that as that passage was written for the church/people of God, and as we are the church/people of God, then that passage will speak to us. The corollary to that is in my experience those of us who read it often read scripture with the end pint already known. WE know what this passage is saying, and usually that is something that backs up our point of view. Scripture should nee be read like that, but should challenge us, mould us, take us further into God, even when we are taken far from what we thought was going on, and far from our comfort zone.
That is enough of a ramble, but a conversation about this would be good.
Peace.
John
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