In his first book he reimagined spiritual formation. Now in his second book, he takes on preaching. The trilogy will be completed this Fall when he releases his masterpiece, "Communion Cups Re-Filled."
Obviously the last one probably isn't going to happen, but I just finished the second one (which is a real book) and thought I'd throw in my two cents. This is one of those books where I find myself going, "This is really good" [turn the page] "what the heck is he talking about?" [turn the page] "This is really good" [repeat ad nausium]. I think he hits on the importance of thinking about why we do what we do and challenged me to be willing to change if something can be done in a more effective way. Certainly preaching has been a one-way speech for quite some time now and it would do us well to think about if that is the way people learn best or not.
On the other hand, as most books like this do, he comes across saying "My way is the only good way and if you do it the old way then you're a doo-doo head." I know some people who learn well from speeches and I have benefitted greatly from both class lectures and sermons in the past. So here's my favorite and least favorite quotation from the book.
Fav: "But the history of heresy shows it's most often the abuse of power--not an openness of power--that creates environments ripe with heresy."
Not fav: Really most of the things I didn't like consisted of longer sections where he contradicted himself or didn't really make sense and I know no one wants to read a page-long quotation, so I'll spare you.
1 comment:
Yeah, I know we already talked about this, but he says that he is simply offering another way of doing things, and that it is okay to do it the old way if that works well, but the rest of the book doesn't seem to carry that message. He uses such pejorative language concerning the current method preaching, that by the end it seems like only a huge bastard would ever even consider preaching. I like that you point out the good and bad, because both are certainly present in his book. Also, I think that his model is great for up to 100 people, but what next. Someone is bound to get their feelings hurt, and we can't have that. I'm jaded right now because of teaching practicum, but I'm so sick of this "I don't learn from this style" attitude. It's so egocentric. How about you try to learn regardless of what style is used. If you want to learn you will. Now I will take deep breaths and count to ten before I explode.
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