What Youth Ministry taught me - or something like that

As I said in my previous posting we did something a little different yesterday at church. Hence no sermon notes this week.

And then last night we held a Taizé service based around the Stations of the Cross. Our previous Taizé service had nearly 20 attend. Last night we got to 5, eventually. My wife, who had done most of the work wondered before we started, if we just flag what was organised and if we just sing some Taizé  songs. I said no, let’s do it even if there are only 3 here, which there were at that point. This caused me to reflect on my approach to preaching and to worship. Both come out of my youth ministry days, and in particular Dr Bob Mayo at the first international youth ministry conference and the work of Pete Ward.

At the conference Bob’s suggested that in evangelism, instead of trying to explain the scripture stories we need to tell them and then shut up. We don’t need to explain them, we don’t need to help people work out what they are about. Just let the story speak for itself. I realised yesterday that that has had a huge impact on my attitude to preaching and to what we do in worship. Joel Green, who was my New Testament Theology lecturer in my Master talked about preaching being helping people’s imaginations being shaped by the biblical story. For me as a Franciscan, as one who seeks to walk in the footsteps of Francis, who waked in the footsteps of Christ, this means the gospel stories in particular. So our congregational drama was all about helping the story speak for itself and then letting people work it out for themselves.

But won’t they get the wrong answer, I hear some of you say. During Lent I have introduced several spiritual practices. One of them was the lectio divina. A basic understanding of that is that Christ the Word speaks to us, our lives, what we need through scripture. What I hear in the story will be very different from what I might read in a months’ time. Same with sermons. What I hear now will be different from what I hear in a months’ time. So last night I realised again that what I try to do in my preaching is help people into the gospel story, and to allow that story to speak to them, and them to that story. I do offer some thoughts, but my basic hope is that the story will speak to them and that their imagination will be shaped by that story. Thank you Bob and Joel for that approach.

This also affected my approach to the Taizé service last night. Because not many turned up we were tempted to not do it as planned. What was planned were slides of images of the 14 Stations of the Cross, with Taizé chants with some, and readings from the gospels about others when appropriate. It was another way of helping people into the story and letting it speak to them. When I looked on the internet there were lots of Stations of the Cross services. They involved prayers, reflections, occasional readings, even activities on occasions. None of it seemed helpful to me. I just wanted the story. Not what others thought the story was about. Just the story, with room for people to reflect for themselves. So in the end I just had the story. It was so good to sit for the hour going through the stations, engaged with the story in this way, and allowing the story to engage with me, more importantly.

I also realised when Bonnie suggested not doing the service that I really wanted to do it. I was reminded of Pete Wards thinking in his book about the Joy Community in Oxford that when we plan and run worship it should be for us, those planning it, and should be something we want to be part and we then invite others to join us. It should not be something we organise to attract people into our church. So there were three of us, OK. I still wanted to enjoy this experience, and did. And 2 more came and joined us. 

My drive home was one of reflection on these things. And with a sense of gratitude for these reflections.