Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Opening up the kitchen?

Last night, while a few of the young adults were discussing the evening service one of the guys said something about preaching which I'd seen previously.

He said that the sermon was more like the dinner table, not the kitchen.

At the dinner table you present the finished product.
In the kitchen you craft what you are going to display.

I've been in a church services where the person giving the sermon was giving an academic paper. He walked us through the entire recipe from start to finish. It even included footnotes. No kidding, freakin' footnotes.

Sometimes, details need to be shared.
Sometimes, it is good to know where the person up the front has gone to shape their thinking.
Sometimes we need to glance at the recipe book.

The vast majority of the time? This is not the case...

I've previously written that story trumps theologian. It sure trumps footnotes.

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