Peter SmytheA Different Kind of Word Preacher

As a guy who naturally dislikes being confined to an uncomfortable chair and forced to listen to a five-minute sermon that has been stretched out to forty-five minutes or more, I found Brant Hansen’s latest post a real hoot. I suggest that you check it out here (comments too).

In his post, Brant says:

Truth is, I don’t learn best, I’m not reminded best, by listening to large-group oration. I learn best when I can interact, when I can listen to others interacting, or when I can hit “pause” during a podcast, or when I can go back and re-read that last thing Jesus said that shocked everybody and made me laugh.

I admit that I’m with him on this. While Ephesians does speak about the five-fold ministry gifts (notice that I write “gifts” and not “offices”), today’s view of the gifts seem far and away different from how we see them used in the New Testament. Twenty-first century preaching has much more to do with Helenistic Greek oration than with the scrabbling interactions/reactions that we see in the Gospels and Paul’s missionary journeys (when is the last time that your pastor asked for questions?).

Maybe the new media of podcasting, blogs, etc. will usher in different ways of doing “church.”