The Church and Monday Morning Amnesia
It’s Monday morning, just 24 hours since you may have walked out of church.
Quick, try to remember . . . what was the sermon about?
Which hymns did you sing yesterday?
If you are like many, you won’t remember! You were there, but it’s all a bit foggy. You may remember who sat in front of you or a conversation with a friend after church. But the service itself is likely to have slipped into mental oblivion.
The members that left 2×2 worship yesterday are more likely to have an answer to that question. We passed around a copy of a painting that helped us discuss the Shadow of the Cross.
Without that visual aid and the impromptu comments as each reviewed the artwork, our members, like others, would be groping to remember the message by Sunday dinner.
It’s the start of a new week and your pastor is probably already reviewing next week’s scripture. He or she is likely to ponder the message all week until a carefully crafted treatise is polished and delivery is practiced. Soon it will be Sunday morning. D-Day (Delivery Day). And then the process will start over.
And very few will remember.
So much effort, time and money spent on ephemeral benefits.
Why do we revolve our worship lives and ministry around communication that isn’t working?
I think we pastors ask too much of ourselves and give more than most people want. We want to teach everything and make sure everyone gets each nuance of the text and learn all the theological jargon. I use powerpoint a lot and used to use a lot of object lessons, but it’s hard being creative. It’s much easier to just talk about the text.
Teaching people how to read their bibles and how to correctly interpret the bible is important, but so much of it is forgotton. I’ve used artwork before, but I’ve been trying to use story much more. That’s difficult as well as there is not always a good biblical story in the lectionary reading. Yet when possible I try to tell some biblical story, as the part of the grand salvific story, to help teach the theology I’m trying to impart and to share the Gospel.