Overbooked preaching

On Sunday i preached on "taming the tongue" from James 3. I could have easily overbooked the sermon.

During the sermon i pretended to finish the sermon after only saying one sentence, had those in the congregation show the underside of their tongues to one another (yes, even the oldies!), frantically drank my glass of water so i could then drink milk straight from the container and subsequently added off milk to the newly sampled container. Sure, this seems a but excessive in only 20 minutes, but each illustration added to the sermon and made each point memorable (or so i was told!).

But i could have done more to theatre-ise my sermon.

Originally i had planned to dramatically show the effects of gossip by cutting open a feather lined pillow and then hitting the pillow to make the feathers explode out.

But i was aware of overbooking.

Overbooking: A wrestling term where a show has dramatic changes, but none stand out due to the quick progression of the program, thus reducing the effectiveness of what has just transpired.

One constant criticism of a particular wrestling company is that they overbook their show. Any surprise isn't given enough time to adequate sink in (eg happen just before a commercial, or have the announcers talk about the implications of what just happened).

Last Sunday i didn't want too many memorable things to occur, and thus water down the overall effect or confuse those in the pews.