iCanuck

A Church Sign I Would Love to See and a Sermon I Would Love You to Read

Church signs.  Whenever I pass I church always look at them but later I rarely remember what they say.  There are really bad ones and really good ones.  (What constitutes a good one?  I’m not sure but you just know when you see it.)  There are videos on YouTube of different church signs.  There are groups on Facebook devoted to church signs.  I assume that church signs are used mainly to get people to come to the church.  How effective are they?  I don’t know, but there are some church signs that would have the opposite effect.

Friends of ours who also read Geez Magazine brought my attention to a sermon contest that the magazine held. I read Geez online and I hadn’t visited the page recently so I had missed the contest winners.  The third place sermon is titled The Lawn Sign Sermon.

PLEASE GO AND READ THIS SERMON!  The church sign talked about in this sermon would, without a doubt, bring newcomers to the church.

(Photos found on http://www.holytaco.com/2008/08/04/church-signs-that-wont-make-you-go-to-church/)

Rethinking the Sermon

The sermon has become the central part of most worship services today. When you ask someone, “How was church today?” or “What is THAT church like?”, you will get responses either about how good the sermon/preacher is or how good the music is. Even so, the music is usually seen as preparation or a lead-up to the sermon. The sermon is the most important part of most churches today so you would naturally thing that it would be the most effective part of the worship service. But, is it? How effective is the sermon? Or, is it effective at all? Some may argue that the effectiveness of the sermon depends on the giftedness of the preacher. That may be true . . . to an extent. I still think, though, the effectiveness of any preacher who is preaching in a large group setting is still quite limited.

I have been to Christian conference grounds where there are chapel services every morning and evening Sunday to Friday every week of the summer. Many faithfully attend these services daily with their Bible and notebook in hand. They hear sermons wice a day, every day for weeks! And what is the result of all this pew-sitting? Are they “closer to God” at the end of the summer then they were at the beginning? Are they following Jesus more wholeheartedly (Yes, I recognize the redundancy of that phrase, but I ain’t no professional author ) as a result of all the sermons they heard over the summer? Do husbands treat their wives better the more sermons they hear? Are wives more faithful to their husbands after attending a sermon filled weekend conference? Do you stop criticizing others the more years you spend in the church? Granted changes do occur seemingly as a result of sermons. I say “seemingly” because I am hesitant to give the lone sermon too much credit. Before I explain what I mean, take a look at something that A.W. Tozer, a well-known preacher, once wrote:

“Though God… has provided answers to our questions concering Him, the answers by no means lie on the surface. They must be sought by prayer, by long meditation on the written Word, and by earnest and well-disciplined labor. However brightly the light may shine, it can be seen only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it.” (The Knowledge of the Holy)

So, if this is true, what does it mean for the Sunday morning sermon? Could we also say, “However eloquently the preacher may wax, it can be heard only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it?” If someone is ready, if there are spiritually open, if they have heard God silently speaking to them already BEFORE attending the Sunday morning meeting, they are more likely to respond to something the preacher has said. But, what about those that haven’t been seeking by prayer, or meditating on the written Word, how effective will the sermon be for those people?

When there is genuine change in someone after attending a Christian conference of listening to a sermon, I wonder if it is because God has already been speaking to that area of the person’s life even before the sermon was delivered. Let”s say I have been feeling bad about how I treat my wife for some time and I have really wanted to change but I just haven’t gotten around to working on being a better husband. When I read the Bible and pray I feel that God is reminding me of this area of my life and how it needs to change. Every time I show disrespect I regret and feel bad. Sometime I say sorry to her. Then one day I hear a sermon on how to be a good husband and finally I make some changes in my life. Was it the sermon or the preacher that changed me? Or, was it that I had already placed myself in the position and was spiritually open at the time I heard the sermon that helped me make these lifestyle changes? Was it the sermon that effected the life change or was it my times of personal study and prayer?

If the sermon is not solely responsible for effecting change in one’s life, why is so much energy and time put into its preparation? Could that time and energy be used in other ways more effectively?

I have more to say but let me leave it here for now and give you a chance to respond. Of course, if nobody responds, I will just shut up and say no more but I would love to hear what others think and what their experiences have been.

N.T. Wright and Mitsuo Fukuda

Mitsuo Fukuda wrote an article entitled, “Sermon Topics Contextualized for Japan” in which he writes that

It is reasonable that frequent quotation of foreign theologians and usage of terms such as, God, love, sin, redemption, soul, trinity and other specialized words often causes a sermon to sound foreign to the Japanese non-believer or one seeking after Christ. It is also possible that those who are seeking refreshment for their souls go away bored because of a continued stream of knowledge-oriented sermons which are meant to appeal to a person’s mind.

(I would suggest that many of the terms used in sermons today sound foreign to many non-believers whether they are Japanese or not. They sound strange to many Westerners as well!)

Unfortunately, many sermons in Japan begin with these concepts. Recognizing the limitations of sermons, Fukuda suggests 3 other starting points for preaching to Japanese. I do not think they are limited to the Japanese psyche and so I want to talk about one of those starting points here – the sense of BEAUTY.

Fukuda writes,

“The Japanese have a sensitivity that enables them to find beauty and brilliance in everything that exists. Munesuke Mita, a famous Japanese sociologist, calls this the “consciousness of original favor” (gen-on ishiki), and contrasts it to the Hebraic consciousness of original sin.

The Japanese have a sense of gratitude for even the smallest things in their everyday lives. I will call this a sensitivity for recognizing beauty and happiness in life and existence, the “‘good fortune’ consciousness” (okage ishiki).”

The contrast of the “consciousness of original favour” to the “consciousness of original sin” is interesting.

In “Simply Christian”, N.T. Wright outlines four features of human life that function as echoes of a voice. These four features are justice, spirituality, human relationships, and ( . . . drumroll, please . . . ) BEAUTY! As a church planter in Japan, this last “echo of a voice” caught my attention immediately. I want to explore this idea of the beauty that we find in our everyday lives acting as an echo. An echo of what? As a Christian, (and a follower of N.T. Wright – ha ha ), I believe it is echo of the voice that is found in the Creator God. (Note: the “creator” in Creator God is important for the Japanese context. The Japanese have many gods and they all go by the same name and written with the same Chinese character. Highlighting CREATOR, helps to distinguish God for the other Japanese gods. Perhaps this is a topic for another post someday.) This is not to say that beauty in itself will directly lead us to God, but that the echo, or the longing for beauty is part of who we are as humans and so is worthy of following after.

When talking to Japanese about God, (or, perhaps anyone in any context for that matter!) I wonder if it would be much more culturally-sensitive or culturally-appropriate to begin with this innate sense of beauty which we all have. Hmmm . . . I DO want to think about this some more.

Any comments? Any helpful advice? Can you point me somewhere to help me ponder this some more?