Open-Source Sermons
I listened to Gary Hamel talk about the future of the church at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. He blew my mind. One of the gems he dropped (among many, mind you) was the following:
We need a lot more business models and innovations in church. Why is church a lecture, not a discussion?
He talked about how the church has become a one-way street when it could be (and should be) a two-way street. Less monologue, more dialogue. More questions, less answers. Then he mentioned something that had never occurred to me as a preacher and teacher:
Open-source sermons.
It’s like Linux or WordPress, but for messages. What if the members of the community had a chance to give their input into what was covered in the weekly message? What if someone has a unique perspective on the Scripture being preached on and can “lend a hand”? What if some of your members have a Masters of Divinity just “sitting around” and would love to “take it for a spin” every now and again?
So, in keeping with another Summit presenter’s advice to “just do something,” I decided to give this a try for my message this week. (And beyond, if it works!) My text is 2 Samuel 6:1-11, so I’d encourage you to give it a read and contribute your thoughts here: http://bit.ly/imm-81309. The beauty of this all is since Immersion is webcasted, my “community” is literally worldwide. Certainly there are some limiting physical factors, but anyone and everyone can contribute and watch what God does on Thursday nights.
Think of the benefits:
- Attenders eagerly anticipate the message, hoping something they’ve shared can add to the word that God has for your congregation.
- Increased Biblical fluency–if your people want to contribute, they’ll have to read and know the Scripture you’re talking on!
- Decreased preparation time for the communicator.
- Broader ecumenical and cultural experiences built into the message.
You, as the communicator, would ultimately have the last word in what went in and what didn’t. This idea speaks to shifting the “professional clergy” from being the “powers the be” to the “powers that see”–see the connections, opportunities, and wisdom in the surrounding community. It would leverage technology in order to allow the faith community to build a collective and communal word to themselves. Brilliant.
right on. this is a great idea and a great use of technology. it takes humility and guts too. the "power shift" aspect is HUGE i think
Doug Pagitt seems to utilize this idea at Solomon's Porch, but more within the community. they meet on Mon. to discuss the scripture for the next sun. sermon, talk about it, decide together what the most important aspect for their community is, and then doug does some more work on it. (that's my understanding based on his book, "Church re-imagined")
I've never taken part in your community, in person or webcast, but i'll try to check it out this week
I really like the idea. I REALLY do.
In fact when you tweeted about this earlier, I sat here at my desk at work for awhile trying to come up with something to connect to the Scripture you will be preaching on, but I just couldn't think of anything! I hope this goes well for you, cause it seems really awesome. 
Chad
Love this idea. I missed the Leadership Summit this year (bummer) but I'm glad to glean little nuggets like this from those of you who made it there.
I'm very much in favor of cultivating a discussion instead of a monologue in the church.
Great post! Thanks for sharing.
If church was about you, as either a leader or a member, then sure this idea's great but it's not, it's about God and worship of him. The whole thing went wrong at "We need a lot more business models and innovations in church". We don't NEED it. Those models for sure are helpful and facilitate organising our communities in new ways but what we need the most in the Church is people that lead with a understanding of who God is which involves preaching and scripture. All this 'innovation' talk is actually people trying to distract from getting down and understanding the message better and thus taking themselves and their churches out of centre-stage and putting the glory back on Christ. Sure Q&A and discussion is helpful but it shouldn't come at the cost of preaching. I don't see why all of a sudden a constant of how God speaks to his people throughout the Bible should be diluted into a entertainment/engagement driven dialogue.
Casper
When you say, "Q&A and discussion is helpful but it shouldn't come at the cost of preaching," How would you define "Q&A and discussion" and "preaching"? How are those similar/dissimilar in your opinion?
Preaching as I see it patterned in the Bible is where God speaks to people directly and they then stand and declare what he has said. Preaching is monologue, God to us. Q&A & Discussion is dialogue, us to us. There's totally a place for dialogue totally, just not at the cost of preaching.
Think of each of the Bible characters that God tasks with taking his message to his people and there's never a committee before hand. Preaching is prophecy, bringing the word of the Lord to people and it's not something you leave open to conjecture. A friend of mine recently summed it up well "it is not humble to leave ambiguous what God has made clear, and to make clear what God has made ambiguous".
What I see with much of the 'open source sermons' is a dissolution of the authority of the pulpit and the democratization of the message, which is going to lead to it not being of God and rather of man eventually. I don't deny preachers are no more than mere men and need to seek wisdom and advice from those they believe are qualified to do so but when the entire congregation can weigh in on what comes from the pulpit it 'opens' up the pulpit to being the mouthpiece of man not of God.
I see where you're coming from. I also see a potential problem in your reasoning. Do you object to the use of commentaries? Bible dictionaries? Sermon illustrations that come from popular culture? By your reasoning, these preaching aides should be looked at as dissolving the authority of the pulpit. Why? Because using these resources "decentralizes" the message.
Do you see where I'm coming from?
Furthermore, if preaching is prophetic (which I believe that it is), does one simply sit in a room, locked behind a door, waiting for the word to come? Or does that word come out of wrestling, writing, pruning and seeking the counsel of others?
Did I ever say anything you just suggested? "I see where you're coming from" -I don't think you do.
Yes preachers are not lone rangers. Yes they do need counsel. Yes they need to study their bibles with the guidance of other wiser leaders (teachers, commentary authors, etc). Yes they do need to have their finger on the pulse of their church through being a part of the lives of those they have been given to shepherd. Yes they do need to be using what they learn in relationship with people to speak to their minds and hearts the Gospel that they themselves study and own.
I was critical of a concept where preachers 'open up' their sermons in the preparation phase and in content to a democratic software development philosophy. That's the thing that seems antithetical to preaching.
"Attenders eagerly anticipate the message, hoping something they’ve shared can add to the word that God has for your congregation." – They're anticipating hearing from themselves and not God.
"Decreased preparation time for the communicator." – Ok after trying this, I think you'll see it increases sermon prep because you need to listen to Tom, Dick & Harry and then either find out how to fit everyone's views in or spend time addressing red herrings.
You're giving people with agendas a bigger reason to hold them because now they'd have a greater opportunity to influence others. When it comes time to listen to the sermon, rather than it being stated with authority since you are now all equals, it's your opinion and that the congregants are encouraged to assert their own opinions at cost of the Truth.
Don't hear that I'm against listening to people. I think it's incredibly important for pastors to be with people, hearing about peoples lives and providing counsel or more pointed teaching and subsequently this aids relevance. Yet I'm very wary of methods that undermine the authority of preaching which is the key method, not ideally but functionally, that God's message reaches people each week.
Preaching as I see it patterned in the Bible is where God speaks to people directly and they then stand and declare what he has said. Preaching is monologue, God to us. Q&A & Discussion is dialogue, us to us. There's totally a place for dialogue totally, just not at the cost of preaching.
Think of each of the Bible characters that God tasks with taking his message to his people and there's never a committee before hand. Preaching is prophecy, bringing the word of the Lord to people and it's not something you leave open to conjecture. A friend of mine recently summed it up well "it is not humble to leave ambiguous what God has made clear, and to make clear what God has made ambiguous".
What I see with much of the 'open source sermons' is a dissolution of the authority of the pulpit and the democratization of the message, which is going to lead to it not being of God and rather of man eventually. I don't deny preachers are no more than mere men and need to seek wisdom and advice from those they believe are qualified to do so but when the entire congregation can weigh in on what comes from the pulpit it 'opens' up the pulpit to being the mouthpiece of man not of God.
I love the idea – How would you consistenly initiate this? I'm going to cheat and add a couple of verses and give Props to David for dancing in this "sticky" situation! Could you imagine being that passionate?
That was extraordinarily fun. Looking forward to seeing if my thoughts make it in!
Hi Justin,
I found this post through a Catalyst Twitter Message. And I believe that god wants me to contribute to your open source sermon, but I don't like to write long texts, so I recorded a video. http://video.seesmic.com/threads/r1Hjearpou
God bless
Toby
It sounds great that a church would have less answers and more questions. Just what I am looking for.
(sarcasm)
Brice
Be a part of the solution! How would you answer some of the questions posed in this post? Any ideas? Please share!
Brice
Be a part of the solution! How would you answer some of the questions posed in this post? Any ideas? Please share!