CLPD in the Leeds (North East) Circuit 2004-2005
Theme or team preaching on topics related to Church and Society which raise difficult and tricky issues
Introduction
Two ministers and two local preachers met four times between February and July 2005, each meeting lasting one and a half hours.
In the meetings we discussed what might be the aims for preachers in dealing with difficult and tricky issues; what distinctions could be made between different responses to such issues. We surveyed what issues were currently relevant to today's congregations and discussed how we had, or might have, dealt with them in our preaching; we also looked at and discussed four sermons.
Possible themes for preaching included: life-style issues, eg homosexuality; political issues, eg asylum seekers, free market v intervention; medical ethics, eg euthanasia; and living in a multi-cultural society.
During the course of our discussions we found that various themes were brought up and developed further. These are outlined below. The group will not now meet again but there is the potential for future groups to explore further some of the issues raised.
The members of the group felt that the meetings had been very interesting and profitable and had appreciated the opportunity to meet together and to discuss this topic. It was felt that this way of working, ie committing ourselves to meeting as a small group, for a limited period of time, to discuss a specific topic; was: economical, productive, enjoyable and beneficial.
Aims
We suggested that the aim for preachers was to help us, as preachers, to be better equipped to discuss and respond to those topics which raise difficult and tricky issues, in order to help the people of God to have a `better conversation' with people (family members, friends, colleagues etc) about such topics.
Distinctions
We agreed that there were distinctions to be made between:
- reactive preaching - ie forced on us by events, eg the Boxing Day Tsunami, 9/11, the London Bombings
- proactive preaching - reflect on what's been happening, eg themes which crop up over time
- educative and preparative preaching as a basis for Christian apologetics (encouraging people to think: How do you deal with challenges to faith? What are the mechanisms: run away? or rubbish it? or use it to develop your own faith?)
What would allow people to think?
- speak to their experience
- explore the scriptures in a relevant manner; make them human & accessible; concentrate on the people,
- not dealing in slick answers
- be realistic
- be honest
- speak out of a relevant experience
- tell stories with which they can identify
- be concrete rather than abstract
- demonstrate that the experiences they are having are normative, not abnormal
- suggest ideas for continuing their exploration
- give the opportunity for follow-up questions/discussions/prayer/counselling:
- reactive preaching: congregation may need someone to speak to (cf helplines advertised after TV programmes that deal with issues that might disturb)
- proactive preaching: preacher follow up with a workshop/housegroup
Sharing sermons: Review of exercise
What is it that we are learning, from looking at these sermons, about the business of preaching about tricky topics/social issues, in such a way that we help people to think about them and work at them?
- Fuller/adequate feedback, from congregations, would help us improve our performance
- Feedback from peers who have read rather than heard the sermon
- The preacher's attitude helps: frankness, the laying open of our wrestlings to them
- Contextualising texts - making it relevant to me to help me make it relevant to the congregation
- Helping people to understand their faith, to know where they stand enables them better to handle tricky issues
- Working from first, or basic, principles is generally more creative than working from formulae
- Faith gives courage to face what you wouldn't have the courage to face if you didn't have it/to face what would be unfaceable without it
- The relevance of the topics makes/reassures people that you're talking to their situation—Find a human story to illustrate their situation
- We need to be informed about our theological position and about the tricky situation to which we are speaking
- We need to make our position clear; need to acknowledge the information/knowledge on which we're working, eg this is what I know/understand about it, ie being honest about our own context. We can declare our position and then examine the issues
- The structure of the argument needs to be clear - about divine/human responsibilities - contribute to building up divine society.
Proposal for new group (to share sermons)
This proposal has grown out of our discussions. We are recommending it because it comes out of our own experience of doing this exercise which we found very useful.
Questions to consider:
- How often does the group want to meet? What sort of topics to be discussed? Using the lectionary?
- Need to distinguish between a group doing work on sermon construction, discussing a sermon yet to be preached or getting together to discuss lectionary readings in advance and producing possible outline of deas etc; or a group discussing the post-preaching experience, dealing with feelings and thoughts.
- Further to our own discussions we realized how useful it could be to have a group dedicated to helping a preacher's performance, carrying out mutual appraisal & exploration.
Question for the meeting:
- Are there any members who would be prepared to meet as a group to discuss the kind of things that would be mutually helpful?