Be a part of the solution! How would you answer some of the questions posed in this post? Any ideas? Please share!

Be a part of the solution! How would you answer some of the questions posed in this post? Any ideas? Please share!

(sarcasm)

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.

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

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?

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.

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.