JR Briggs has a good recap of a great conversation in a coffee shop... would that all our interactions about Jesus would go this well!
"Last Tuesday morning I was waiting to meet someone at a coffee shop in Lansdale when I noticed a guy reading a pamphlet titled "Islam and Christianity." I asked him what he was learning and what his motivations were for reading a pamphlet like that. He explained to me that he believed in Jesus, but wanted to know more of the similarities than the differences between the two religions. He told me that he is believes in Jesus, but isn't a Christian - and doesn't desire to be..."
By which He has granted to Dustin "Dball" O'Bagby His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these Dustin "Dball" O'Bagby may become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. (2 Pet. 1:4)
Have you ever inserted your name as you read the Bible to make it more personal? Now you can experience the reality of God's love and promises in a way you never thought possible. In the Personal Promise Bible, you will read your first name personalized in over 5,000 places throughout the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs, over 7,000 places throughout the complete Old and New Testaments.
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Even when Dustin "Dball" O'Bagby was dead in trespasses, God made Dustin "Dball" O'Bagby alive together with Christ (by grace Dustin "Dball" O'Bagbyhas been saved), and raised Dustin "Dball" O'Bagby up with Him and madeDustin "Dball" O'Bagby to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:5-6)
Okay... when Sonseed first started making the rounds, I was skeptical... I mean, c'mon: "Hes like a mounty, He always gets His man and He'll zap you anyway He can...ZAP"??? "He came and found me and He touched me deep down inside"?!?
I was extremely skeptical.
I even found a few sites that try to debunk the video. As far as I was concerned, it was a spoof. (Though to be honest, everytime I'd watch, I noticed it seemed like the musicians actually knew the song, even though they were lip-syncing. Watch the guitarist's picking. He's nailing it!)
But then...
Andrew Jones posted the video today, and in the process of linking some of the "proof" that it's fake, I discovered... It's freakin' real.
Want the whole album??? Here it is in all it's Cheesy Jeesy goodness... (warning- Jesus is a Friend of Mine is the only cool Christian Ska song- the rest is the kind of stuff Christians were putting out in the early 80's)
This is an example of the TV show Sonseed appeared on. And yes, it was an inter-religious dialogue show that included a puppet show called "Punch and Judaism."
And if you've read this far, here's your reward... Sonseed ringtones!!
Someone asked about my sermon routine... I give this with the caution- if you are in school or just starting out, do what your teachers told you, not what I do. I think it's important to work through the mechanics and science of sermon prep for a good long while... as you do that, it becomes second nature and the art starts to appear. Try to start with art before learning mechanics and you'll be very frustrated. I think it's that way with most skills, and homiletics aren't any different...
Here's what I do
1. I meditate on/read/reread the passage looking for the "preaching point", which is generally where the main point of the passage and what God/the author were trying to communicate and where the community I pastor is currently at intersect.
2. When I feel I have that direction nailed I start writing out my intro and my conclusion- how I'm going to point us in that direction and how I see us landing. I spend more time writing the conclusion than the intro, and generally want to write it out first. When I don't do that, I find myself repeating things at the end. When I've already written the end and said what I want to say there, it makes for much less repetition in the body. If you find you're the kind of preacher who can't "land the plane" consistently, try writing the end first.
3. I start working verse by verse through the passage, writing as I go, connecting that intro and conclusion. This is where I generally compare translations and check the Greek and commentaries, working out any hard interpretive issues.
That having been said, some weeks step 2 and 3 are reversed, particularly with tougher passages- I don't see that intersection point (and thus my destination) until halfway or more through the process. Those are harder sermons to write and (I'll bet) to hear.
4. When I have a completed draft, I ask myself the 5 questions:
Where in this message do I clearly point to Jesus? Where in this message do I speak to non-Christians? Where in this message do I speak to Christians? Where in this message do I speak to the heart?
Where in this message do I give people something to do right now- rather than later…
5. Then I do the final draft, making revisions where prayer and the five questions tell me I should...
6. Go over it on Sunday morning making corrections and changes, often adding any missing interactive elements which seem to come easier to me when I've sat with/slept with a completed sermon for awhile.
All in all I'd say I spend an average of 10-12 hours a week on sermon- 8-10 hrs mon-thursday and 2 on Sunday morning before the gathering. Sometime less, sometimes more...
I sat down yesterday to study and begin writing the sermon for this weekend (1 Cor 14: 26-40... whoa...) at a local coffee shop. I hadn't been there but maybe 3 minutes when an older gentleman walked in, set up a chess board, and asked me and another guy working on his laptop if we were up for a game.
I smiled but declined as did the other guy... I was on the clock, after all.
But the longer the older man sat there, alone in front of his chessboard, the more I began to think about how much time I spend in coffee shops, earbuds in, head down over book or computer, completely missing out on one of the few genuine upsides to "officing" in a coffee shop- that chance to interact with people.
So yeah, I got up and went and played two games of chess.
I only meant to play one quick one, but we got to talking...
He totally suckered me in, too. Made out like he was someone who had recently gotten into chess, had bought a computer chess game and was now just looking for some human opponents. Over the course of two games (he trounced me in the first and narrowly won the second) I discovered that he does this nearly every day and has been doing so for years.
We talked about our work (we're guys after all), so I got to tell him that I was a pastor and a little about evergreen.
He'd been a part of a local church here for 30 years, but was now "taking a break."
I ended up being a little late to get home to Date Night... mainly because as we wrapped up the conversation started to get deep- some serious stuff going on, some real struggles, and as odd as it sounds, we got there, even as relative strangers in a coffee shop. One thing I've noticed about self-identifying yourself as a pastor with people- it often totally shuts them down OR they begin to unload some of the deepest stuff of their lives.
I mostly listened- didn't offer any great words of advice or wisdom. But I felt like even though my sermon might suffer, my pastoring didn't.
I've been trying to make and stick with a decision to be less introverted in public- more aware and concerned about those around me. (Amy noted my downright chattiness with the waitress last night. A big switch for me) It's so easy for me to be gregarious with those who come to evergreen or already see me as "pastor." Much harder for me to do that in public spaces.
What I really want to do is earn the right to pastor those who don't already see me that way- to move the gifts God has given me out of our "Community" and into my community and see a group of people who don't come to evergreen and recognize me as their pastor, but who begin to see me as a spiritual friend who fills a role of pastor in their lives, and through that become connected to Jesus.
"Therefore the only mention of "college" in the Bible involves a woman preacher, and only mention of "school" in the Bible involves people disputing with the word of God. This cannot be an accident."
By the way... so Zach doesn't think I'm picking on Obama (I'm not- I'm worried about the weight some people are giving him in terms of putting their hope in a human being), just for the record, the chances of me voting for McCain/Palin have been rapidly diminishing over the last few days. Man, that Couric interview... Whew!
Bruce Elliott, whose wife owns the Old Town Ale House, painted this nude portrait of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. He said his daughter, who does a good impression of the Alaska governor, served as model. (Kuni Takahashi, Chicago Tribune / September 29, 2008)
