BLOG 7/25/13. A CONTINUATION OF THE PEW ZOMBIES DISCUSSION

BLOG 7/25/13. (CONT) ‘PEW ZOMBIES’ OR INTERACTIVE LEARNERS

My last blog had to do with the all-too-common phenomenon of passive church folk, for whom the raison d’ètre, the purpose of the teaching formation of the church, seems to be a matter of indifference. The question: How is what takes place in the community’s gatherings for worship and nurture related to me and my understanding of my role as a disciple of Jesus?

The question gets a more intense when one asks the question about how does the ‘preacher,’ the person who occupies the pulpit, see his/her role in equipping the community for their God-given mission in the 24/7 week that is to follow? How does what takes place in that teaching time (which we entitle sermons) cause the Word of Christ to “dwell richly” (Colossians 3:16) among the participants of the community so that they can “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom?”
And given the interactive character of the emerging generations (mentioned in my last Blog), how do I respond, verbalize misunderstandings, ask questions, challenge interpretations, or seek clarification? Where do I go to engage my teacher in conversation, seek examples, press him/her on specifics, discern the implications of the text within realities of my life?

It means that the church’s pastor-teachers (one specific gift mentioned in Ephesians 4) are those engaged with the persons whom they are seeking to bring to maturity in Christ, seeking to enable them to function without “being blown about with every wind of teaching.” But we have too often created a depersonalized preacher, who preaches ‘sermons’ … but to what end? I think it was the whimsical Martin Marty (who spent his life in theological education) who once observed that too many preachers of his experience were always preaching sermons to please a professor of preaching from their seminary days, whom they hadn’t seen in fifteen years!

It takes deliberateness, to create a matrix in which the preacher can be in honest and dynamic and interactive communication with those committed to his/her charge. In Paul’s experience in Ephesus, it seems that he not only taught in public, but also from house to house. It would be the house-to-house component, or the church-around-the-table component where the teaching pastor is in friendly and honest give-and-take with the believers for whom he/she is responsible, that would keep it all quite real and effective. For a preacher only to ‘hang-out’ with clergy friends, or with the ‘clergy-seminary subculture’ is a sure path into ineffectiveness. Does your preacher, your pastor-teacher, your teaching-shepherd have such a means of engagement with the people of God?

Two brief examples from my experience (as a pastor-teacher): When the late Bruce Larson (as I got the verbal report), who was a larger then life and a very ‘people oriented’ guy, was asked to accept a call to the large University Presbyterian Church of Seattle, he agreed to come but upon the willingness of the pulpit nominating committee to continue to meet with him weekly to hold him accountable, and in communication with the large congregation to whom he would be preaching. The church over the years referred to this group humorously as “Bruce and the Seven Dwarfs.” He was a most effective communicator.

In my experience, for a season, a hugely helpful episode was when about ten of my very honest and hungry friends beseeched me to meet with them for Bible study at a time when I was ‘maxed-out’ with meetings. I agreed only if they would work on my sermon text with me, be brutally honest with me, help me, and evaluate the sermons that came from this. They rose to the occasion, and it became a significant factor in more effective teaching for me.

There are many ways to accomplish this, but it must be in some dynamic interaction with the real folk we are seeking to grow into maturity. (To be continued …).

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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