Methtastic

I attended a residential with college last weekend looking at “Homiletics” (preaching to use the usual term!) I went off in grumpy old man mode “I’ve been a local preacher for 15 years” “Half the Anglicans hadn’t even read a lesson until they came on this course” etc etc.

But I came away really surprised as we were told about lots of new ways of preaching. The one that really grabbed me was Story Telling. I’ve been in awe of people who can do this and didn’t think I could until two Sundays ago I decided to take the plunge and told a story based on the Wedding at Cana and to my surprise it was well received.

The chap we had to talk about story telling was brilliant. I could have listened to him for ours. I know story telling is getting big on the folk scene and I can beging to see why. He explained how stroy telling csn be used for Bible stories of course but also other stories. He is a vicar and tells stories in pubs as part of his ministry. (Sounds good to me!!)

Not something that can be used every week. It would get very samey I suspect. But once in a while would be a change for preacher and congregation.

During the weekend a small team of students worked together on a sermon to be preached at the Covenant Service on Sunday morning. (The Anglicans love the Covenant Service.) I thought this would be a disaster but far from it. It was very effective. The four of them all spoke part of it (the content is hard to describe but was very powerful) and one of them (in the gallery) was “God”

Again well worth thinking about preachers. Though takes a lot of organising.

But I’m certainly going to look at different ways of preaching from now on.