Hello Friends,
I thought you might like to check out this series on the rise of the nones, a topic I wrote a tiny bit about before.
Here is a link to their reporting: Losing our Religion
In other news I am trying to figure out the last paragraph to a sermon on Colm Toibin's The Testament of Mary and Martin Luther King Jr. Wish me luck. I think like many preachers I have a tendency to over reach. If I were in the sort of community that would/could sit through 20 minutes of sermon this one might work, but it is a little much to fit into 12 minutes. Also, just for the record, I would have a terrible time with 20 minutes.
Having had the opportunity to watch some lay people preach this fall I got to think about how it feels for them to get up there. I also had the experience of two out of three of them sort of hoping for some more interaction afterwards. Or maybe it wasn't afterwards, maybe it was even during the sermon.
At our very small Thursday evening Eucharist, I tend to preach extremely casual extemporaneous sermons. I find that during those in the context of sitting so near each other, folks don't mind adding their two cents. It is nice to hear people participating.
In preparation for this sermon I listed to a lot of MLK sermons during the week. The audio of those is always a treat. His voice just sort of brings you there. But I was enjoying the way the congregation encourages Dr. King. They tell him to preach, and say "Tell it Dr. King." One I hadn't necessarily heard before I liked a great deal, "Make it plain." What a great thing to say to a preacher. I have a new preaching dream now. I can't imagine how it will ever come true, but it would be great if a congregation would say "Make it plain" to me. Dreams.
Alright, I have to get back to this final paragraph. I am not sure it will work, but sometimes as long as it exists in some form on paper, I might be able to understand it better in the morning and fix it up.
Sarah
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