Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Post-Modern Preaching

Via Transforming Sermons

Here's a website on postmodern preaching. Not that it applies to us lay Catholics who are unworthy to break open the bread of the Word, but it is very interesting:

Postmodern people respond best to a preacher who:

1. is a whole person. They want to know who we are and what we do, not just what we say and believe. They want to know the difference the living God has made in our personal lives.

2. speaks genuinely from the heart. Merely reading words from a manuscript is not enough. If we show an honest passion about a subject, it helps them to believe in that subject as well.

3. respects them as people. Postmodern people do not like to be controlled or manipulated. They do not respond to guilt or obligation. They do not want emotionalism for its own sake.

4. brings them to God. We are disciples, not preaching machines; we teach people to be disciples, not trained listeners. The purpose of the scriptures from which we preach is to change lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

2 Comments:

Blogger Talmida said...

Do you suppose we could do a little amateur forgery and print those up on some Vatican letterhead? Just mail them off to every seminary in North America?

I particularly like number 3.

9:18 PM  
Blogger Milton Stanley said...

Thanks for mentioning my blog.

Also, I just got my health insurance bill (have to buy our own). It makes me wish I lived in that pluperfect subjunctive universe you talk about. Peace.

9:22 PM  

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