I am completely relaxed. I feel easy, responsive, open and reactive. Standing there in the vortex of angelic energies. I am communicating, two-ways, from me to the other, from the other to me. I am connected to a source of thought, a source of feeling, a source of perception. I pluck the words out of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘preaching’
State preaching
Posted in Flashes, tagged angels, inspiration, preaching, speech, state on February 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Why modules
Posted in Sermon writing and preaching, tagged compelled, compulsion, freedom, meetings, preaching, worship on October 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
First part of this posting is here: Modular Worship Meetings. Part two: Why approach worship, meetings, groups, or church services through modules? Because it allows for and re-introduces a sense of freedom. Very simple. No freedom, no worship, and no connection to the higher power we call God or source or fill-in-your-own-name. Swedenborg wrote about [...]
Eating the bread: part three
Posted in Sermon writing and preaching, tagged beggar, bread, convention new church, home church, Jesus, lord's new church, preaching, Roslyn Taylor, sermon writing, temenos on August 8, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Part three: leading in worship. A series of postings on the challenge of preaching. Series based on the preaching metaphor: one beggar showing another beggar where to get some bread. I asked Roslyn Taylor about the exhaustion thing, see part two. Ros is a female minister from a church environment that only ordains men to [...]
Eating the bread: part two
Posted in Sermon writing and preaching, tagged beggar, bread, exhaustion, Jesus, preaching, sermon writing, walking on August 8, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Part two: exhaustion. A series of postings on the challenge of preaching. In part one we looked at this preaching metaphor: one beggar showing another beggar where to get some bread. Here’s another side to this: a minister that attempts to provide the bread for a small or large group of people will feel exhausted [...]
Eating the bread: part one
Posted in Sermon writing and preaching, tagged beggar, bread, Jesus, preaching, sermon writing on August 8, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Part one: hunger. A series of postings on the challenge of preaching. Preaching metaphor: one beggar showing another beggar where to get some bread. That’s a funny image. Not the dispenser of bread for the hungry, but just another beggar who happens to have found some bread him or herself and now tells others about [...]
“Preaching should be bigger. To be a human being is to long for something larger than I am, and preaching provides that if it’s good preaching.” (Fred Craddock) I am certain that the Lord’s teaching when He was on earth provided this. Anything or anyone that doesn’t bring you alive is too small for you. [...]
Four shields in preaching
Posted in Flashes, tagged four shields, medicine wheel, preaching, sermon, sermon writing on March 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There are four shields or directions of human life, four states, four parts of a cycle. These follow one on the other, in order. Link to four shields extract. The following insight came tonight. When it comes to preaching or teaching usually one of these states is the target: black – self-examination, facing oneself, growing [...]
Interludes
Posted in Flashes, tagged preaching, sermon writing, sermons on January 13, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Interludes in sermons. I do interludes. I learnt that on my practicum. I have used interludes inside the sermon for the last 6 months, every time. This is why I want to use them, these are my thoughts about this: A sermon is received as a process. It is not a timeless statement or message. [...]
Presumption
Posted in Flashes, tagged mystery, preaching, Standing Bear on December 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“After all the great religions have been preached and expounded, or have been revealed by brilliant scholars or have been written in fine books and embellished with fine covers, man – all man – is still confronted with the Great Mystery.” (Chief Luther Standing Bear) Does that mean I shouldn’t try to read the great [...]
Out of Jesus
Posted in Flashes, tagged Bible, Craddock, exegesis, Jesus, preaching, sermon, Word on October 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’m listening to a Fred Craddock talk from 2005. He mentions the word “exegesis,” and his slightly Aymehricun accent makes it sound like: “Ex-uh-Jesus.” Exegesis means going from single Bible verses toward meaning. Swedenborg’s Secrets of Heaven are an exegesis of Genesis and Exodus. “Ex” means out of. So… you get exegesis = out of [...]
Preacher or spiritual teacher: part two
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, Lord, preaching, regeneration on September 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Part two: the firebrand. I came to the New Church through my understanding, no doubt about it. Actually it is more true to say that I came to Swedenborg and from there to religion through my understanding. From there my feelings came into play somehow and I have been moved to another place, spiritually and [...]
Language is flexible
Posted in Flashes, tagged Bible, church, Lord, preaching, religion on September 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“If a language doesn’t have a word for “behind,” this doesn’t necessarily mean that its speakers wouldn’t be able to understand this concept.” (source) We already instinctively know this. It’s the power of poetry, as an example. A few well-chosen words that vaguely circumscribe a situation can evoke a powerful image of the experience. Doesn’t [...]
Preacher or spiritual teacher: part one
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, Jesus Christ, preaching, presence, regeneration, Swedenborg, teaching on September 1, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Part one: the blind alley. In the New Church the job of the priest is described as: teach the truth and lead to the good of life. Swedenborg simply does not say it in more detail. Now, these words can be understood in many different ways. And by repeating them again and again they really [...]
Passion: part two
Posted in Flashes, tagged holiness, Lord, preaching, presence on August 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“No truth is in any sense holy unless it stems from good. A person can speak many truths from the Word, reciting them by heart, but unless they are the product of love or charity holiness is no way attributable to them. If however love and charity are there, in that case he really acknowledges [...]
Those boring sermons
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, God, preaching, spiritual growth on August 16, 2010 | 2 Comments »
“In the early 2000s, the advisory committee of my small congregation in Massachusetts told me to keep my sermons to 10 minutes, tell funny stories and leave people feeling great about themselves. The unspoken message in such instructions is clear: give us the comforting, amusing fare we want or we’ll get our spiritual leadership from [...]
Passion: part one
Posted in Spiritual Reality Center, tagged Laurel, preaching on August 13, 2010 | 4 Comments »
At camp Laurel I asked some people what makes a lecture or a sermon inspiring? One person nailed it: passion. If the speaker has passion, the talk is inspiring. Note that it’s not any of the following: truth articulation message structure preparation theatricals solemnity props, timing, pauses, humor, good music… Passion: part two.
Coming into union
Posted in Spiritual Reality Center, tagged church, Laurel, Lord, love, preaching on August 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Reflections on the 2010 Laurel camp experience. It was all as I had expected and hoped, yet at the same time totally different. I was staffing as full-time minister and have received only exceedingly good feedback on talks and services. Still I have to admit to myself that the Guiding Hand wasn’t mine. One vesper [...]
Blocks of stone
Posted in Flashes, tagged preaching on May 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I have had an odd experience that I am struggling to make sense of. This is a regularly occurring experience. When attending a church service, listening to the minister speak, my mind almost splits in two. One part is able to follow the words, understand them, agree with them. Another part feels like the words [...]
Preach the Truth
Posted in Flashes, tagged feeling, preaching, Truth on February 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
We teach the truth. But not for the truth’s own sake. . They won’t remember what you said. They won’t remember what you did. They will remember how you made them feel. ~ Maya Angelo ~ . Put together with this that feelings, or rather affections in New Church doctrinal understanding are interpreted to be: [...]
The long sermon
Posted in Flashes, tagged ending, preaching, sermon on November 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“After one address, William Jennings Bryna, the famous American political orator, was scolded by his mother, ‘ Will, you missed several good opportunities to sit down.’ ” (Preaching That Connects, p. 128) It’s one thing when a sermon is long. It’s another when it seems to finish and then doesn’t. “An optimist is someone who [...]
