Learning How to Preach

I've been learning how to preach. Over the last two weeks I have been teaching two preaching practicum classes as intensives. That means we meet every day for two weeks. So, for the past two weeks I have been listening to four sermons a day - grading them, reflecting with the student, critiquing the sermons with the help of the whole class, and reading exegetical journals to see how students got from the first reading of the text to the final draft of the sermon. And, in the process, I have been learning how to preach.
One of the wonderful things about being a teacher is the reality that the teacher always learns more than the students. However, in this forum, I do little preparation. There are no lectures to give, only reactions to the sermons preached. All these students have already taken the basic preaching course and have been trained in what to do to put a sermon together. The practicum is just that - practice. The opportunity to do on the job training. It is a valuable and important part of the seminary experience. However, that doesn't mean that, as a teacher, I am not learning as much or more than the students. I am.
Thinking through the sermons that I hear is a wonderful learning experience. Hearing how the other students react to and work with the sermons they hear is another wonderful teaching-learning tool. I've learned more in the last two years about preaching than I have in many years. It's not just the books I've been reading or the classes I've been taking but it's the student sermons I've been listening to on a regular basis. When we moved to Pasadena I wanted to visit many churches and hear many preachers and experience many worship styles. That has not worked out in the way I thought it might (I have been doing Interim work almost since I arrived). However, I have listened to more sermons than I ever have in my life. Between being a TA and being an adjunct teaching practicums, I have been listening to 15-20 sermons each quarter - and sometimes as high as 50 sermons in a 3 month span. This listening process has been rich and wonderful.
My suggestion to those who are preaching weekly is to find a way to listen to others preach, too. I don't know that the television is a good source of good preaching, but there are other ways to use the Internet and find some valuable sermons to hear. Get some tapes, borrow some sermons from a neighborhood pastor or church archives, or find a way to purchase some videos of great preachers (there are video series out there featuring great preachers and one called the Chicago Sunday night series that has some real names). I have learned that there is much to learn from listening to others.

Choosing a Presidential Candidate

I watched the Saddleback Civil Forum the other night (I actually recorded it to be able to watch and really analyze it). Having looked at it quite intensely, I have made some conclusions:

1. Whoever you vote for, they should represent the values you hold most dear. No candidate will reflect all of your values, but usually one or the other will reflect far more of the values you hold dear than the other.
2. The media keeps speaking about Evangelicals as though they are a monolithic group. They also group any of us who are serious about our faith or conservative in our theological views into the Evangelical category. Being at Fuller has certainly taught me that the variety of interests for those who are religiously conservative is quite diverse. (By the way, I don't consider myself an Evangelical. It is a rather specific term that does not describe most of us who have embraced Church of God theology and practice - our background is Pietistic rather than Evangelical).
   
3. Whoever wins, the world will neither end nor will it become suddenly brighter. Both candidates are capable leaders. The messianic fervor that supporters place on either their election or the dominance of one party over the other seems foolish, at least according to history. There are times when a less than exciting winner of the White House has become a great president (Abraham Lincoln comes to mind) and there are others when a landslide winner has been less than great (Johnson and Nixon come to mind). What we hope for is someone who will grow in the job.
   
4. I am glad that the candidates and the parties are talking about values in a religious context.
5. I was greatly offended by the pundits (I usually am) who made the case that Obama won the night because his language was more "natural" for Evangelicals. In other words, what he said mattered less than how he said it. I find that demeaning to those of us who are thinking believers. I also found the pundits less than helpful when they jumped on McCain's decisiveness as the key for his winning the night - as though thoughtfulness and thinking were not to be valued by believers. That unless you can name the ten things you believe without question, you are not going to resonate with a group of believers who can name the ten things they believe without thinking. Both positions demean the meaning of faith.

So, now you know who I will be voting for in the next election. Good luck with your decision.

The Olympics

It's the second week of the Olympics and I am still watching it. Michael Phelps has finished and I am still watching it. I am watching things like Water Polo, Diving, Volleyball, and Table Tennis. Not always the glamorous or most watched events, but the medals are the same size, color, and prestige. I like the off beat things about the Olympics. I have watched all the diving events, even the synchronized diving, which I've never seen before. I guess I like these events because I've played them all. I used to dive competitively when I was a teenager. I've played Water Polo and Volleyball competitively, too. When I was going to seminary in Pennsylvania, the competition at the ping-pong tables was pretty intense - not Olympic caliber but pretty good table tennis.
One of the things I have tried to teach over the years it the idea that God can use anyone. I just did a first person narrative sermon as Elijah and one of the points I made in it was that Elijah was someone who, called by God, became more than he thought he could ever be. God does that to people. He makes them more important, more significant, larger than they thought they could ever be. I look at all these athletes doing these amazing things - the Phelps, Bolts, Liukins. And then I think, you know, I might have been able to do that. OK, maybe not but I could have tried. I think many of them are people who realize that they are doing more than they ever thought they could do.
Every time I walk into the classroom or mount a pulpit I feel like Elijah or an Olympic athlete - I'm doing something greater than I ever thought I could do; greater than anything I thought I could be. Not that I am great but that what God has called me to do is greater than I ever hoped to do. I get to influence lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. I get to read and divide the Word of God. I get to study and learn the intricacies of the Word. What a privilege I have. Who'd a thought a kid from Gloucester, N.J. with little to no background in the church would grow up to be at one of the most prestigious schools in the world pursuing a Ph.D in Homiletics? Only God. Only God. He makes us do even greater things than we can ever dream or imagine.

Taking a Break - One Final Break

Over the course of the last month, I have been taking a break. I finished teaching a course for the first five weeks of the quarter and I didn't have to teach again until the final two weeks of the quarter. This is the first quarter since I began my work at Fuller that I have not had to register for a class - just teach. So, I've been taking a break from classes. Well, from taking classes - and from teaching classes during this month.
Instead, we have been traveling. We went to NE Ohio where I preached the NE Ohio Camp Meeting. It was a very enjoyable week. Great people, great fellowship, great response, great food, great setting, great accommodations. It was a great break from school and teaching. Instead of going to class and teaching about preaching, I preached 9 times in 7 days; in addition, I did five hour-long conferences from Monday through Friday. On Monday we rested; on Tuesday we saw a movie (The Dark Night - very good); on Wednesday we took our son and daughter-in-law out to dinner for their anniversary/birthday; and on Thursday we went to the hospital with our daughter-in-law for a procedure that turned out to be benign (Amen). That was our recovery week.
On Friday we flew to North Carolina and spent the weekend at the church were I first went into ministry. I preached there on Sunday morning and spent the entire rest of the day at a party hosted by the folks who were in the youth group when I was the Youth Minister. It was one of the most enjoyable and interesting days I've ever spent. After being gone for 30 years, more than 30 of those students came back to the church, bringing spouses with them, just to say hi and thank me for what I had invested in them years ago. Sometimes, ministry can fill you with a sense of having been used by the Spirit.
After the weekend, we flew to Florida to visit with Joanie's Dad and his wife, Tina. Dad is in his mid 80's and doing well, except for his hearing loss and back problems. We do enjoy spending time with them both and are most comfortable in their home. We also have a host of friends in Tampa from both the church and our ministry travels. We went to dinner or lunch most every with someone; went to a Tampa Bay Rays game (the most exciting game I've ever seen); I traveled to Warner Southern College to meet with the Church Ministries Department to set up things for me to teach a course for them in the Fall on-line.
This week we are in Indiana. Joanie has a meeting for the National Worship Committee tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have offered to sub in tonight for my son's pastor who is having a biopsy today. So, I am planning to teach tonight. I have been working on some of my lessons for the course I am teaching in the Fall at Fuller. On Friday, we go home to Pasadena. Then, it's back to work. We probably won't have another vacation until I finish at the end of 2009. Sure glad we got this break. It's nice to relax and not have anything to do.