Last week I wrote a bit about preaching styles (manuscripts vs outline vs more free form) and today I want to chat a bit about the form or content of a sermon.

First, a note about the above photograph. This is a shot of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, a community that Doug Pagitt helped to form. I love so many things about the photo above, but I think this gives you a bit of an idea about what preaching “in the round” or having a dialogical type of sermon could look like.

I think most would agree that the church is one of the last places around that you’ll still see the primary/sole mode of teaching/transformation be a lecture-style sermon, monological preaching. Folks in education have been experimenting with different forms of pedagogy for years, and have moved past the “talking head” format for quite awhile now. Sure, there are times in a large lecture-format course where it still makes sense to give information that way – but most students would probably tell you there are more engaging ways to learn and actually have the information stick, than listening to a lecture.

Yet, it’s a safe bet that you can show up at church on a Sunday morning at your typical church, and expect, for the most part, to sit back, listen, hear and be a passive recipient of a worship service, particularly during the sermon.

[Read more...]