Be Creative:
I am one of those who believe that instead of preaching less, we must be preaching more than ever before. The only thing we need to do is to be more creative in the way we communicate or deliver the sermon
My beef is that we must try and make use of several things to enrich our sermons and make them less boring.We can use illustrations, videos or radio dramas for instance. It is becoming common nowadays to use short video clips from popular movies; and there are many great illustrations to be found in today's movies. In the past one could have used a segment from a popular book to make a point. Today grabbing a short clip from a movie can have the same effect but receives better attention.And the more popular the movie, the better the reaction from the listeners. People love to share a common experience or emotion and if there is a scene from a movie that evokes a moment of grace,mercy anger, love or some other emotion then its perfect for use as an illustration-especially if it helps to connect that point of the sermon to the clip and binds it to a common experience.With videos there are just many ways to make your sermon come alive.
One Video that i saw recently used as a sermon illustration involved "man-on-the street" interviews. They asked people on the street what they thought about Jesus. The preacher did not tell the audience what people on the street think of Christ , the audience saw a clip of the responses. The bottom line is we may consider making our own videos for sermon illustration.
I remember in my home country in Africa a preacher who was preaching on the passage in John 10:27.He soon realised that those of his audience had no contact with sheep, and many could not even appreciate them as domestic animals that can develop relationship with the Shepherd.The preacher visited a farmer with a large herd of sheep and brought to service a video clip of his interview with the farmer in the sheep shed.He then used the exact words of the farmer to relate to the words of Jesus and the audience rose in applause.Preachers must give the audience an opportunity to experience the very point of the biblical passage instead of just saying it in words and expecting them to take it as fact. We live in exciting times. Let us make sermons equally as exciting by using modern technological forms of communication in our sermons.
Have always believed that we preach for three reasons. We preach to make people God conscious, to bridge the gap in times and understanding between our time and world and the time and world of the bible. We also preach in order to challenge people to hear the gospel and to live by its precepts. Assuming this is so, then what we need is not preaching but any action that can achieve similar results. We can sit down and discus as groups, create special phone text fellowship groups or have teams of musicians or artists to do a drama which revokes the momories of Christ. How about that?
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ReplyDeleteJohn Wesley’s advice to:
“Do all the good you can
By all the means that you can
In all the ways that you can
In all the places that you can
To all the people that you can
As long as ever you can.” Includes traditional sermons as well as thinking outside of the square. In this context Steve’s exhortation to juxtapose, subvert and amplify is great advice. I like Steve and Linda Taylor’s ideas for a Genesis 1 “sermon” ( p 240 course notes) We live in a visual world. Visual experiences can enhance the audio logical experience and deepen both.