Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Doug Pagitt, Preaching Reimagined

I read this book before going to the National Pastors Convention (which is a set of blog posts that I need to finish) where I was going to learn from Doug. I went to a early morning book club, but Doug talked for a long time and I didn't get a chance to ask my questions...that sucked and I was disappointed for getting up that early.
This book is a viewpoint that preaching goes more on the pastor side (as oppossed to the prophet side, ala Driscoll and Bell). It has some really interesting insights - if you are one who leads and addresses the whole congregation, it's very likely worth the read. Here's some stuff that I was drawn to:

>> Doug's style of preaching is (self-) called progressional dialogue. He calles traditional preaching, "spreaching". Saying that the church is the only place in culture where spreaching happens. I think comedians do it to though...but I don't know what the implications of that are for preachers...

>> p. 31 "We tell the story of the Spirit blowing where it will. Yet we resort to speaching in an effort to protect the story, to make it digestible and applicable. The gospel is simply too powerful for that kind of control."

>>p. 35 "I'm not suggesting we need a new kind of preaching to reach a target market. Rather we need a new kind of preaching because we need a new us."
And I (james) think the same can be said for forms of church!

So what is the role of apostolic leadership in the emergent church?

>>Chapter 11>>Implication vs. Application>>This chapter put to words much of my thinking on the application/implications that are presented at the end of Purpose Driven sermons..."Think about the ways in which the disciples responded whenever they listened to Jesus preach. They wondered what this call would mean for them. They talked to each other about what they'd heard. They asked Jesus questions about how his words were changing them. They were not asking questions of application, but of reorientation."

The gospel is not a prescription!

What does this look like in youth ministry?

>>p. 145 on pastor burn-out rates: "Something is tragically amiss when the life-giving gospel becomes hazardous to the lives of the people most engaged in it."

Divorce kills the Sabbath. Kids spend the week at one place and the weekend somewhere else....where do they rest if both parents are trying to get maximum relationship out of the kids?

I think I like this book mostly because it helps me to go somewhere with my
thoughts. Pagitt doesn't tell me things as much as he gets me going in
directions that lead to really really awesome thoughts, feelings, changes
and expressions of Christianity in a postmodern world.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Is there even the slightest possibility of application without reorientation? Or is that how we get really weird and/or harsh versions of Christianity? I don't know...how many times does a person go through a reorintation anyway? It might be nice to stop PJ in his tracks some Sunday morning and ask what the heck he means by what he just said. Might make the reorientation easier, faster, maybe fuller. Sometimes it seems like the Lord is reorienting me constantly. Maybe I'm just a slow learner.