Posted by: BC | April 28, 2007

Holding Pattern

hi.  i know i haven’t written anything recently.  mainly because i’m preaching for the next three weeks.  when i have the opportunity to preach i always jump at it.  unfortunately it seems to exponentially increase my workload as no one else jumps in to take over my usual duties.  it’s saturday now and i have less than 24 hours till go time.  i’m in the post-it-note phase.  basically i’ve generated several outlines and portions of text to use and have been slowly whittiling and shaping them over the past couple of weeks.  now i’m getting the most important things i think God wants me to share on 5 little post-it  notes for tomorrow.  why 5?  i can talk for about 5 minutes on each post-it.  which puts me in the 25-30 minute range.  =) sort of.  why post-it notes?  it’s just whats working for me right now.  it actually comes from a sermon i prepped in slovakia 2 summers ago.  all i had was my bible and some post-it notes and it worked out really well.  or at least seemed to.  you’ll have to go find some slovaks and see what the translator really said =)

 might write something else later this week.  oh, there is something new-ish over on “vellum” my writing site.

Posted in preaching, reflections

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Responses

What a great idea–I wish I had thought of that! Not the post-it notes, the translator. Next time I have a presentation to give perhaps I’ll give it in klingon, and hire a “translator” from the local comedy club. That would probably be more interesting than how the output from the multi-variate adaptive statistical filtering routine is compared to the real-time values to deterime the severity of the current observations. I guess I might have trouble keeping a straight face through the translation though…

By: Scott on April 28, 2007
at 12:19 pm

Well, I must admit that I have been lurking around this site reading every so often but not commenting–which is kind of rude in a way. Rather than listening in, I will try to converse.

I can connect with the preaching prep thing because as a layman who get the chance to preach once in a while, life and responsibilities go on around me. BUT, I am so happy to do it because it is a rush to preach–the fun of digging into the Word, the anxiety of trying to hear what God might be wanting to say via the sermon, the frustration when I inevitably do not hear clearly or discern well enough, and then (hopefully) the satisfaction when something that emerges from my mouth actually connects with people–because God in His crazy plan usually decides to work through (in spite of?) me. I attend a small church so the stakes may not feel quite as high as the big ole church you are at, Bri; but all would agree that the size of church has nothing to do with the responsibility of simply bringing the Word.

Well, anyway, I am always wrestling with how to prep. Lately, my notes have gotten more and more scattered. It is a bit frustrating when you look at your notes 10 minutes before you speak and wonder what of this mess will actually come out of my mouth. Never really done the post-it thing–but may try it.

OK, enough rambling. . .

By: Greg A on April 28, 2007
at 6:38 pm

Hmmm . . . I have never considered preaching in klingon - although yesterday the “martians” came out of my mouth. I think it was something to the effect of “ok, if let’s forget the whole mu$l1m thing for a minute, maybe you’ve got a heart for hindus, or buddhists, or atheists, or maybe just whoever it is who lives across the street. I don’t know maybe it’s martians - but that’s a whole other sermon.”

That’s how it goes sometime with the less scripted, more free form organization. The preaching twice in a row makes it interesting though - the same thing does not necesarrily come out each time. But then again, why should it? It’s definitely two different audiences.

By: stoutchap on April 30, 2007
at 8:39 am

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