by chadbrooksis@gmail.com | Jan 30, 2014 | preaching
I remember the first church I was regularly in the preaching rotation. After a few sermons my pastor gave me a copy of the “Preacher’s Sourcebook of Creative Illustrations“. If you have ever wondered where country preachers get really corny stories…it is in books like these.
I think the method of preaching and preparing for sermons has changed drastically in the last 20 years. When I moved to St. Paul’s I had to shift from longer (30min) sermons to shorter messages. The content also had to shift. I was moving from a much more academic culture into one that had different needs. What I learned was the power of story telling and narrative preaching. I wanted to find great examples of people telling great stories. I want to share some of those findings with you. These are all great place any preacher could pick up a few new tips from.
My Favorite Resources for Modern Preaching
1.Pixar:
No one is better at telling a story people of all ages can focus in on than Pixar. I didn’t find out about this naturally. The wife and I don’t have kids. Our movie and television watching begins with the Walking Dead and ends with Quintin Tarantino (a GREAT storyteller) usually. I was aware of Pixar, but it was an article by Joe Berkowitz made me pay attention. Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling–Visualized gives so many creative hints preachers can learn from. A google search will turn up more analysis of Pixar around the internet.
2. Fasttocreate.com
Fasttocreate.com is the creative arm of Fast Company. Full of intriguing content, much can be learned by spending 5 minutes a day on their site. The writing staff shares, picks apart and focuses on amazing story telling. This is the best place to be If you want to learn how peoples minds are listening, processing and ingesting information.
3. Nancy Duarte and Duarte
Nancy Duarte and her team at Duarte are hands down the best people developing digital presentations today. Most people learned about them after they worked on Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” Nancy has written several great books on presentation development. Possibly the best, the one preachers really need to read, is being given away right now digitally. Resonate is a book we should all have in our toolbox. If you struggle with visual images in your sermons you really need slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. I think both of these books should be seminary and bible college curriculum for the craft of preaching.
Honorable Mention:
These are a few other great resources for modern preaching.
Ted Talks: I didn’t put Ted on the main list because I honestly think they are getting tired. The information is there, but the presentations have started to become lacking. There are still great ones…but I have personally found a hit or miss pattern lately.
SERMONSMITH: If you like digging into other peoples sermon preparation you need to listen to the SERMONSMITH podcast. I love it and don’t miss an episode.
Preaching Rocket: I have written before about why I love preaching rocket. It is an investment, but I couldn’t imagine not having their product in my toolbox. They have a great (free) webinar on How to Become a Better Storyteller.
Preachers, where do you find help in non traditional ways?
If you aren’t a preacher, what methods of sermon delivery do you appreciate?
by chadbrooksis@gmail.com | Jan 23, 2014 | life, Methodism
Today the 8th episode of The Threshing Floor came out. I am privileged to produce this podcast with two great friends and for it to be part of the amazing Seedbed family. In this episode all three of the hosts share why we each are Wesleyan. We are also each offering up a blog post today on the topic as well.
For me, there are many reasons I self identify as a Wesleyan. I didn’t grow up Methodist and I wrote about that transition a few months ago. I wasn’t always a Methodist…but I think I have always been a Wesleyan. The United Methodist Church became the place I found my own personal experience best expressed. And experience matters.
Why I am Wesleyan
1. The Theological Beginning Point of an Incarnating God.
I am a big fan of the incarnation. The tagline of my blog is “worshiping a God who has come to our world”. That is the incarnation. We have a God who is not distant and far off, but instead is right here among us. In the very mess of life.
The incarnation is a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, so no big distinctiveness here. What I makes me Wesleyan are a few shifts the incarnation gives my larger view of faith.
God absolutely claims us first. He said yes to us before we said yes to him. This is why I (as a pastor) will absolutely baptize an infant. It is why I believe in the true goodness available to all people in prevenient grace.
This also gives us a savior who meets us in communion. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we meet with the presence of Christ at the Lord’s Table. Our Thankgiving isn’t just a rememberance, but it is a Holy mystery of us meeting and being sent by God.
2. Commitment to a Holy God.
When I was in seminary there was always a big conversation about Open vs. Classic Theism. What I appreciated was an alternate conversation about God being understood as Holy. Of course God is holy, but here we find another Wesleyan distinctive.
The very beginning point in our attempt to describe God is Holy. In his own words, God is who he is (exodus 3:14 אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה) If we want to look at the characteristics of what best describes, what is the starting point for the way our God works…it is holiness.
For I am the Lord your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44)
God wants us to be like him, to be functional images of the one who created us. This is a precious gift.
3. The Importance of Human Experience.
One of the four parts of Outler’s quadrilateral is experience. John Wesley called Methodism an “experimental faith”. Not experimental like a science project or a weird cult, but an experiential faith. Human experience should play a dramatic part of faith. John Wesley had this at aldersgate and we each have primary spiritual experiences.
Not only do we have an experiential faith, but we have a faith in which our experiences about God teach us who He is. These experiences should shape our view of God’s character. We believe God gives us these experiences for this very reason.
These are just a few reasons. I hope the conversation helps you think about why you specifically believe what you do, whatever the faith tradition.
by chadbrooksis@gmail.com | Jan 21, 2014 | culture
A few weeks ago I had a funny conversation at work. We have some great volunteers who help out in the church office with various tasks. One of them was trying to figure out what a hashtag was. Her grand kids had been talking about them and we had a quick conversation. My final part of the explanation was how people use them to be sarcastic online. Her reply?
“Well I am pretty sarcastic…guess I need to start hashtagging.”
Amazing.
I think the word hashtag is ubiquitous for 2013. It probably hit it’s peak of cultural fascination with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake’s video. What began as a simple hack for twitter has turned into one of the major developments in human communication. Just incase you are still trying to figure out what people actually use hashtags for here are a few uses (from most functional to…well, the fun ones).
- Categorization of topics or current events (#superbowl)
- linking conversations to a conference or web event (#passion2014)
- Internet groups or twitter chats (like #emptyshelf on instagram)
- Snarky or sarcastic humor
People also use them to describe otherwise emotions in a previously emotionless world. Hashtags give us the ability to make the digital world non-verbal.
Living the #Hashtag Life
Here’s the deal. Hashtags give us a way to sort life. We can easily associate ourselves with things online using hashtags. They are a great way to instantly belong to a conversation…without even being introduced. I take place in a few online chats and just using the group chat hashtag instantly throws me into a conversation with people I have never met before. I have had conversations with some pretty awesome folks because of them! And I didn’t have to be invited. Hashtags allow us to place ourselves, to instantly belong into a group of people. No one has to approve us.
Hashtags also can quickly lead us into other places. We might get a little bit to snarky. Just like my dad used to tell me, “No one likes to bring a negative person on a road trip”, if we get a little to much attitude with our hashtags we can gain a reputation we might not want to keep. We can easily begin to make fun of people and things in a pretty destructive way just to gain a few laughs. It might be clever…but is it holy?
Here is an interesting thought.
If you had to identify three hashtags with who you want people to see you as, three quick ways to honestly describe yourself, what would they be?
To look at the other side of the coin…what three hashtags could those closest to us use to describe us?
Or even further, what three hashtags could those who we have hurt or damaged throw out?
We all want to have values and skills. We all want to be known for something. In our inner core, we want to be approved and part of the group. We want our words to matter. We simply want to belong.
What hashtag honestly describes you the most? Would you want it to be trending?
by chadbrooksis@gmail.com | Jan 16, 2014 | faith
Earlier this summer I was having a conversation with a friend about a particular issue. We stand on opposite sides, but thankfully, our deep friendship allows us to actually talk about it…not debate or argue.
At some point in the conversation, we both realized the strength in the conversation lies into an openness to having your mind changed. Just debating for the sake of debating or allowance doesn’t work. It doesn’t mean you necessarily are changing your mind, but you respect the person enough to honestly listen and care about them. But this can only work in a predetermined relationship of trust.
Since then I have reflected often on the power of changing your mind.
How many times have we picked very small hills we were willing to die on?
Are you one of those people who has to always be right and are willing to destroy relationships to stay on top?
Do you realize the relational power of letting other folks “win”? Especially if you are a person in power…this is one of the greatest pieces of leadership and respect you can exercise.
I don’t ask these questions out of moral lassitude. I ask them because I want to be aware of when I might be trying to push myself on others and when I might refuse to let the Holy Spirit convict me.
As I continue to reflect on this, my prayer has been for Christ to always be changing my mind. Not to loosen things. To change my mind to constantly be seeking a deeper level of righteousness and holiness. To begin a life of always being willing for Jesus to change our minds.
I want to be confronted. I want to realize I have to change things internally. The moment I stop having this willingness notes a point has come where I am concentrating more on myself. This is about my relationship with Jesus and my relationship with other people.
When was the last time you changed your mind?
by chadbrooksis@gmail.com | Jan 14, 2014 | culture, worship
I remember spring break in 1999. I was at South Padre Island with 80,000 college students having the time of my life. Nothing can beat the beach when you are young and spring break is in full spring. While 98% of the college students crowded into South Padre Island and were intent on substance abuse and casual relationships, I was one of around 400 there for a different goal. Yep, we were there to evangelize and reach out to our peers for the sake of Jesus.
I sorted out many things that week, and I had the very first life altering encounter with the Holy Spirit. I can look at many parts of my life which find their origin on the trip. Worship leadership, vocational calling, dependance on Christian relationships and prayer. They all found their beginning during spring break. It was the most important week of my life.
I truly believe most people have events such as these. They might not be as deliberate or even Christian, but they are primary spiritual experiences. And once we have them, we can easily base everything off of them for the rest of our lives. This especially holds true in the Christian life.
Primary Spiritual Experiences become our mold and model for what we think proper worship is.
I am a big fan of pizza. I like to frequent the slice blog. It is part of the seriouseats.com family. Part of the slice blog is a routine engagement with what they call the “pizza cognition theory“, the first pizza anyone remembers from childhood is their primary idea of what constitutes pizza. Every slice of pizza they eat will be subconsciously measured up to their childhood definition of pizza.
Sound familiar?
We have the potential to do the same with our primary spiritual experiences…after all, they are primary! We use these stories as the basis of our own personal story of God working in our lives. It’s downright biblical. Read the Old Testament and see how Israel always brings it back to a few key events; the exodus, the temple and Abraham. Think about how Paul relates his testimony to the experience on the Damascus road. Part of the Christian life is understanding these moments where we first met with God and allow them the proper place of shaping things.
The dangerous part is when we begin to think of primary as permanent.
When we think God will no longer move in our life. When we think the best has already come. When we think God can never do something like He did once before. We take every single experience and try to mold them around those first ones. We can slowly begin insisting on others spiritual experiences conforming around ours. I think this is the basis for nearly all conflict in church.
As a worship leader I think many disagreements stem from a projection of primary spiritual experience. Music selection, instrumentation and many other things. As a pastor I have seen it play a part in conversations regarding building usage, fiances, staffing and strategic planning. Our idea of worship isn’t necessarily the best idea of worship.
Please don’t hear me wrong. Primary spiritual experiences are the foundation of a life with God. We should treasure them. But we can no way let them be the permanent idea of what the spiritual life should be, especially as we get older.
It’s dangerous to not let Jesus be the God of our future. It’s terribly frightening to place radical dependance on the cross. The only thing is…we can’t have a faith existing and only grounded in the past. Belief in Jesus is a belief in the future.
So the challenge is to learn to tell the story. To tell the story of the past and to become people expecting to experience in the present.
How would you describe your primary spiritual experience.
Chad Brooks is a United Methodist Pastor serving in Louisiana. Married to Meredith, he is currently starting a new church in northeast Louisiana. Host of the Productive Pastor Podcast and lover of motorcycles, Chad would love to find Bigfoot one day.