Zoom and shorter sermons 3)

It has always been true that you can only measure the effectiveness of something by first having a clear definition of its purpose and outcomes.  If you see preaching, for example, as a piece of helpful Bible teaching then you can ask: Does this feed me?  And if it does it passes the test!  Certainly, this definition of preaching can work when it's seen and heard on Zoom.

As some of you may know I have tried to push for a wider understanding of authentic preaching. Of it being nothing less than the spiritual dynamic of Father, Son and Holy Spirit at work in the lives of speakers and hearers together.  So, my definition runs:  Christian preaching, at its best, is a biblical speaking//listening/ seeing/doing event that God empowers to form Christ-shaped people and communities (from 360 degree preaching).

It is this aspect of forming Christ-shaped people and communities that is under pressure from an individualized Zoom focus.  Our belonging together as God's people growing and learning from each other must never be lost. Preachers with a wider understanding of preaching will always seek to keep a communal emphasis. That after a zoom session hearers can never walk away thinking Christ's challenge is all about 'my life, my purpose, my future' rather than 'our life, our purpose, our future'. How is this word impacting my life with Christian brothers and sisters?  One of the happy surprises Carol and I have enjoyed is the weekly zoom meeting of our house-group (ever since the beginning of lockdown). We all agree this has given new opportunities not only to pray in depth for each other and the church but for growth in genuine friendship.  It has complemented the Sunday zoom worship by ensuring authentic togetherness.   Perhaps in bubbles like this we can experience more than ever what it means to grow as Christ shaped people and community. 

Zoom and shorter sermons 2)

Many elements contribute to effective preaching.  The Power of Scripture, of Words, of our triune God, of the hearer, worship context and preacher. Experiencing zoom need not diminish many of these elements but it seems to me that the last three are put under pressure.

Active listening is essential.  One writer, George Sweazey, goes so far as to say: 'The skills of the hearers are more important than the skills of the preacher.'  Now we have to be careful here but often when we look at screens in our homes the listening process is different.  Partly because we are used to viewing screens as consumers with ability to choose according to taste but also because we can be distant and distracted all the more easily. It's not just that we can get up and make a coffee but the whole mode of communication has moved into the relaxed individualistic mode of television viewing. 

This individualistic mode which Zoom makes inevitable with its separate screens of our home pods is the most serious loss.  Because worship is about individuals being drawn together, into a congregation which, at its best, is 'a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ' (1 Pet. 2:5) Coming together as God's people, preacher and congregation, gives spiritual dynamic for Christian worship like nothing else on earth.  I think that we can compensate for some of this by preparing carefully at home before switching on, with a willingness to engage actively in spirit and in truth.  God can still connect worshippers at depth if we let him! 

I once wrote 'Preachers readily recognize the contrast between preaching with a worshipful congregation that is united in prayer and expectancy and one that is not. Within one there is a palpable quality of openness and responsiveness. Preachers partner with the congregations within the rhythm of listening and responding....but when a congregation is unresponsive there is instead dullness and flatness'. I still believe that! Happily, my local church has a hybrid set-up which enables preachers to be with a socially distanced group (of 30 people) while also connecting through zoom with many more.  I have not yet preached in this system but I look forward to the positive elements of going hybrid!

Technology has brought many positives in lockdown but we must be alert especially to the dangers of individualism triumphing over the corporate!   Are there other positives and negatives?

 

Zoom and shorter sermons 1)

Others have also noted (and often rejoiced) that with churches employing zoom for their services in lock-down sermons have often shortened to 12-15 minutes.  Now for some traditions that is normal or even too long, but within the Baptist tradition that I know best many preachers speak for 25 minutes or (much) more. So, for some preachers this has been a new experience.  It's been said that zoom is here to stay for the future because even when we are allowed to worship freely again (which seems a long way off still) the benefits of allowing those who are housebound or travelling away to share are immense. (Now I know that it is smaller fellowships that have used zoom and I guess that larger church congregations who have streamed their services have not necessarily seen a shortening of sermons!)

However, staying with those that do use zoom this question of shorter sermons raises a number of issues. The important question is: Has the sermon lost its power if its shorter? Is God able to speak to his people less effectively? God has never needed length or quantity to make his point. Just look at the short stories Jesus told and his pithy teaching. Truthfully it's not how long a sermon lasts but its biblical reality and spiritual quality that enables God to encounter his people afresh by his Spirit. 

So obviously zoom challenges preachers about their sermon preparation habits including length of time. Why, do they always feel they have to preach for 30 plus minutes and begin in the same way?  Of course, I know why preachers hold on to the known pattern because they find it the easiest way to keep preparing. But it flies in the face of the rich variety of biblical communication as well as people's listening habits. Maybe, perhaps, zoom had shaken us preachers up in a helpful way to question well-worn habits. 

Less obvious issues are also raised by zoom.....

Remembering Jim Packer

Jim Packer was an evangelical statesman - once met never forgotten.  Tributes have flowed since his death a few days ago which have shared something of his wide scholarship, Puritan roots, love of teaching as well as his zest for life. I first read his classic 'Knowing God' years ago and later came to realize just how important he was in mediating contemporary evangelical emphases. He was willing to critique N. American evangelicalism as '3000 miles wide and half and inch deep'.  Yet, standing firmly within his own tradition, he always sought to build bridges and especially hold together social evangelicals with theological and spiritual ones.

I was reminded of his visit to Northern Seminary and his session with the faculty.  Into his eighties he still showed such enthusiasm.  I asked him what he would include as essential if he was designing a syllabus to prepare ministers. To my great surprise he replied that he would insist on all students spending some time as interns in Africa.  That experience would broaden and deepen them like no other he said.  I am sure he had several reasons including life style/culture shock and the immediacy of much African spirituality. 

About that last point: though I have downsized many of my books I still keep my Africa Bible Commentary close. In recent studies on Colossians this commentary places an essay on Angels, Demons and Powers in the centre and it wakes you up to a dimension so often neglected in the West.

So, much gratitude to this giant among us.  One essay about Jim Packer went back to William Tyndale's use of the word evangelical which he says: signifieth good, merry, glad and joyful tidings that maketh a man's heart glad and maketh him sing, dance and leap for joy. What a great definition of a life well lived. 

What older people appreciate

I know 'older' is relative.  It's helpful to distinguish between the young-old in their seventies and the old-old in their eighties though we may know plenty of exceptions of young eighties and beyond. But the truth is that even the young-olds know the sadness of friends and relatives dying, accompanied by our own fading strength and energy.  Compounded, sadly, by the isolation of Covid 19.

Firmly embedded in the young-olds ourselves, we have made friends in our own age group and just recently a couple came for a socially distanced coffee time in the garden.  It struck me forcibly just how much they lit up when conversation allowed them to share more of their own story.  In retirement as they have moved to a new place few know about their past achievements and fewer want to hear about them.  But, open up space and time to share and they bubbled with enthusiasm for the great times in former years.  It was lovely to see and hear.

That's what older people appreciate.  And I chuckle because I realize that I have been using my blog to do exactly this....tell out something of my story.  Actually, I have just completed 44,000 words of 'My Weird Life' ending with the birth of our two boys.  Truthfully I have appreciated being able to get some of the story written down though for a (very) limited audience.  When we tell our stories we can veer from exaggerating the positives to emphasizing the negatives.  I know my tendency is towards the former which makes it less gossipy and interesting!  Anyway, here's one older person who has appreciated being listened to. 

Tough words

At my ordination I was given A Minister's Prayer Book with its disciplined pattern of Scriptures for each day and quotations from past spiritual leaders.   I shall never forget first reading a sentence from Bishop Walpole:

If you are uncertain of which of two paths to take, choose the one on which the shadow of the cross falls.

That sets the bar so high, doesn't it ?  Too high? It really involves being 'poor in spirit'. Sacrifice seems too strongly accented!  Surely there can be real joy in receiving a call?  That is certainly part of the desire that we can feel.  Yet, so often there are risks and uncertainties and accepting a fresh call can often mean leaving a place where we have grown comfortable.  Looking back I have to say that each of my ministry moves has actually been harder than my previous situation.  Each time I was forced into something entirely new and those who know my story may recognize why I say that.  However in each move I can affirm that God has guided me!

Unsurprisingly I have often emphasized God's call in my writing but I was shocked in my last year's teaching in the US when a minister told me that idea of a 'call to a church' is no longer part of the language of ministerial settlement in his denomination.  It's all about seeing advertisements, applying, being interviewed and working out if it's going to be suitable for the minister's family. It's a question of Christian common sense like any career choice.  I was stunned by his matter-of-factness, about his dispensing with the need for prayerful discernment in such critical issues. Almost as though speaking of God's call is some pious jargon that lacks serious practical meaning.  I just hope this isn't a trend!

Honesty about guidance 12)

In these last 11 posts I have laboured through my very first experiences of the call to ministry and my first church.  I realize that the cynic could explain all these happenings as just human experiences - a mixture of wishful thinking, changing moods, coincidences and organizational expectations.  What makes me believe that God was involved lies in the subsequent stories. We sometimes talk about 'signs following' (Mark 16:20) which confirm the rightness of decisions and throughout the next 48 years I have witnessed such answers to prayer and hosts of personal stories that I am convinced God has been in all of this.

One of the difficult parts of guidance is the saying No to a situation which seems right.  Ever since my Oxford experience I have received occasional invitations to something new and (very) attractive yet in prayer I knew it was not God's will.  A lack of peace was palpable.  But equally, saying Yes later on proved difficult.  I resisted moving from Blackburn and refused to consider the Cambridge church for nearly two years until a leader I much respected said: 'If God is calling someone to this church why shouldn't it be you?'  It still took some fasting and wrestling!

I have often wondered whether seeking guidance in the local church context is easier than when other Christian organizations seek their leaders.  The invitation to leave local ministry to become Principal of Spurgeon's seemed another silly idea hardly worth considering. What turmoil I went through in that process as some pleaded with me to take it seriously.  I am sure there was some prayer from both sides but pressures, some political, were inevitable and the interviewing process was entirely different.  Carol and I certainly didn't have the same degree of peace in moving to London and my boys say it was the worst thing that could happen to Carol.

And the move to the US.  Did I know guidance there?  This was the most complicated move of all involving more risks than anything we had done before.  Looking back over 15 years there I do see some 'signs following' but of a very different order from the transformed lives seen in local church ministry.  The complexity of spiritual discernment has made prayer an essential ingredient in seeking guidance in every move.  And that, I guess, is the fundamental lesson through it all!