The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Post-TV Preaching?

The sermon is often a one-way street. That may have worked in the television era... when the "program" was presented and you sat as a spectator. 2005 was a watershed year in the history of human technology. It was the year when teenagers in America left the tv to spend more time on the internet - an interactive, relational, conversational media tool.

What would happen to preaching if we stopped trying to put on a good "show" and made the sermon a post-tv experience?

There There

"There, there."

It was something my mom would say in consolation. I heard it often, accompanied by a hug, a smile, or a pat on the back.

There, there.

I don't know exactly what it meant, but I can still hear the love and the care and the presence and the touch.

Speaking of "there, there", I noted a subtle difference between the 50-30-somethings and the 20 somethings while at a post-wedding dinner in North Carolina recently. At a table of two dozen celebrants, all the 20 somethings kept their phones on their laps and were texting on and off throughout the dinner.

No. Really. All of them.

They were there, but they weren't really there there.

My Bishop lost his younger brother Andrew Rogness a month ago. Andrew had been serving at Prince of Peace Lutheran in Roseville. He sent all the pastors in the synod a note on the event yesterday. Here's a snippet:

Our family saw June 30 coming. Andrew was diagnosed with stage four cancer in August 2007, given two to five years to live, and began his journey. My father modeled for me how to grow old with grace; Andrew modeled how to face death with grace. There was no escape to denial; he spoke candidly about his cancer, of his condition, and about the question of life expectancy that was now front and center. Yet he refused to become fatalistic or morose, angry or depressed. Instead he seemed to live each day in even more vivid color, seeing and naming more clearly the abundant blessings that he now saw were his, past and present. He savored life, with grace and gratitude even more pronounced.
 
Many of you who have accompanied someone dying of a terminal illness know this to be a paradoxical journey of both deep pain and rich blessing. The prolonged agony of knowing life with all its relationships is slipping away is accompanied by the opportunity to name and dwell in the abundance of love that gives life its fullness. Andrew and Patti moved to the Cities a year or two before Gerry and I came in 2002. Like most of you, we were busy with the claims of work and our own families and activities. Sometimes weeks would go by without seeing each other. We probably spent more time together since August 2007 than in the 20 years before that. And in the process, this truth emerged: that when life is tenuous, life's priorities gain new clarity. I think we all know it. We just aren't good at practicing it when we're not at a crisis point.
 

Does it take a crisis in order for you to live like it matters? Love like it matters? Be present in people's lives with your whole self and complete attention like it matters?

Live today. Love today. Be present today.

Here, here.

Hear?

(Art above from "The Parable of the Sower" in our new "The Songs of Israel" Bible Song themeset)

Letting the YouTube Generation Tell The Story (with power, grace and style)

Most of ways the church teach are considered boring and irrelevant to teens (I’ve worked with them for 32 years now), and most of the preachers in the mainline today – average age 58 - were taught to preach by a seminary professor who was taught to preach BEFORE television.

I taught in 79 cities last year – mostly among those “relatively staid Lutherans” I've been surrounded by most of my short life. When I show our FINK powerpoint education/worship stuff, cartoons and music, I find that half of the churches tell me they’re still fighting screen wars. (“There’ll be no screen in MY sanctuary!”) What can we do? How can we convince the leadership that a missionary must speak the language of the culture (today the language is visual, musical, cultural, relational and story-based)?

For starters, here’s a little creative interruption you can use as you teach the leadership of your church.

FIRST play Simon & Garfunkel’s Youtube version of “Richard Corey”)

Anyone over 45 may be old enough to remember Simon and Garfunkel, and the simple, gripping power of telling a story in a medium that young people could understand and absorb. After viewing the YouTube, ask them what they just saw, heard, and remember.

SECOND print this list on half-sheets, set it on tables, and invite small groups to wrestle with it for ten minutes. Then come back and write their ideas on a board:

TOP TEN TECH CONSIDERATIONS FOR OUR CHURCH'S MISSION FUTURE

1. 2005 was a watershed year in the history of human technology. It was the year when teens in America began spending more time online than on television.
2. Most of the preachers in mainline pulpits today were taught to preach by a preacher who was taught to preach before television
3. I spoke in 79 cities last year, and found that half of the churches I encountered are still fighting screen wars. (“No projection screen in MY sanctuary!”)
4. Our churches have yet to enter the television era yet, and our children have already left it.
5. The most powerful medium of our day may arguably be social networking
6. The second most powerful medium of our day may arguably be film
7. The third most powerful medium of our day may arguably be music
8. The fourth most powerful medium of our day may arguably be YouTube
9. The most powerful social network of all may not be the internet... But the church of Jesus when it is alive with love, action, passion and compassion.
10. Some combination of presenting Jesus through the media and medium of the day  – if BY the kids FOR the kids USING their stories and a $179 webcam - DONE BY THEM with excellence, power, grace and style – and then followed up with the love, action, passion and compassion of the people of God (the inviting servant church) could  literally reach to the ends of the earth today... As close to instantly as was ever possible in the history of this planet.

QUESTION

So, how do we let our kids tell the marvelous story of Jesus in a way that will reach their post-television generation with power, grace and style? 

Scrap the Lectionary? (Post I)

I blogged a while back on the problems with the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). When it comes to Biblical literacy, the future of worship, children's ministry and the number of basic Bible Knowledge 101 texts that are strangely missing, it gets even worse. Let me refresh you.

I. THE LECTIONARY PROBLEMS: The Lectionary we're using assumes three things that ain't necessarily so any more:

    * Biblical Literacy
    * Regular Worship Attendance
    * A Christian Culture

A. BIBLICAL LITERACY: People are no longer Biblically literate, so most don't recognize the ebb and flow of the texts one week to  the next. Most don't know Amos from Moses (Although they might think he was born in a Louisanna swamp and hunted alligators for a living). Most think Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. You are assuming WAY too much if you think they have any frame of reverence... er... frame of reference on the texts you are reading week-to-week and how they integrate with the whole of the Bible.

B. REGULAR WORSHIPERS: If most church members were attending every week, they might have a chance to eventually understand how the texts fit together, how they relate to the seasons and how  they give a big, balanced picture of the Bible over the three years of the RCL cycle. But that's just not the case anymore. "Regular worshipers" today - maybe 33% of active church members - are probably attending a couple times a month. The other 2/3 don't see the pieces fitting together in any meaningful patterns. "But adult ed is the place to teach the Bible in depth..." you might argue. That would be fine, if it weren't for the fact that most churches adult ed participation is abysmal. The same 9 people go to everything you offer, and the rest go to coffee. Like it or not, the pulpit IS the best venue for adult ed. It's the only place most "regular worshipers" will sit long enough to learn something. But in most of our churches, the pulpit is reaching the most active of our people a few times a month, and the texts we're using rarely relate week to week.

C. POST CHRISTIAN CULTURE:  Although nominally Christian when it comes to the census, our national culture is no longer culturally Christian; thus, the very language, the metathemes and the foundational Christian memes can't be assumed as a frame of reference/reverence any more. That being the case, I believe it is even MORE important to build the Bible narrative from week to week by teaching/preaching and sending home a Bible story week to week, with one week leading logically and chronologically into the next.

Mix all these problems together and add this - the BIGGEST problem with the RCL - and you've got a recipe for disaster when it comes to the future of worship and the future of the church. So, what's the BIGGEST problem?

D. TEXTS THAT ARE STRANGELY MISSING: The RCL we're using leaves out a TON of key Bible stories that you'd want a person to know if you were going to try to raise them with a minimal Biblical literacy.

* Did you know you'll NEVER hear the text about the FALL show up in an RCL church ? (Genesis 3:8-9) Seems kind of important, no?

* NEVER hear the Shama - the central command of Israel - read? (Deuteronomy 6:7-10)

* NEVER hear the coup de gras of the central saving act of the Hebrew Scriptures - the Red Sea Crossing (Exodus 15:1-2, 6, 8-12)

* NEVER hear the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den read in a RCL church? (Daniel 6:16, 26b-27)

* NEVER hear of Ezekiel and the Valley of the Dry Bones? (Ezekiel 36:26)

* NEVER hear Esther's "such a time as this" story and text read or preached. (Esther 4: 8-14)

* NEVER see Jonah and the Whale show up in a reading? crossing? (Jonah 2:2)

*NEVER hear Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

And for you Methodists, you'll...

*NEVER hear the text Susannah Wesley quoted to young John when he was saved from the Epworth Parsonage fire - Brand from the Burning (Zechariah 1:3b, 2:10)

Those are just a few key texts that are strangely missing, but it's enough to show that we are perpetuating our own worst problems when it comes to growing a Biblically illiterate society - even among the regular worshippers.

II. A BETTER WAY

I think we need to either scrap the RCL and start teaching the Bible the same way they paint the Golden Gate Bridge - from one end to the other. Start with Genesis 1 and preach all the way to Revelation 22 over a three or four year period, then start all over and do it again.

If you use our Bible Song stories/songs/sign langauge/cartoons/theme for education and the home resources to to connect worship to education to the home, that means you either:

A.  Scrap the prescribed RCL lectionary texts completely and opt for a new lectionary that teaches the Bible from one end to the other (I've got suggestions if you want 'em)

If this seems too drastic - even for you - you might consider this:

B.  Substitute a Bible Song theme (verse, song, sign language, story) each week for one of the prescribed RCL four texts. (If you're doing an Old Testament Bible Song lesson in Sunday School this semester, drop the prescribed OT text and substitute the BSS text for the lesson each week. If you're doing the Gospels from Bible Song this semester, substitute what you're learning in SS and home for the prescribed RCL text.)

III. WORSHIP LEADING vs WORSHIP READING: If you want to pour keroscene on the education fire and connect pulpit to home to education, get the kids LEADING 1/4 of the lessons in worship rather than someone READING of the text. Have the kids and parents learn the theme verse in song, sign and art at Sunday School, then drag them to share what they've learned in worship as fast as you can.

    A. SING the theme vers every week (the children’s choir is no longer the 9 girls and 1 boy who doesn’t want to be there, but ALL the SS kids AND parents... Talk about energy!)
   B. SIGN it every week as they sing (oxygen, glucose, adrenaline, dopamine,  muscle memory, major muscle groups, minor muscle groups, and children LEADING worship!)
   C. ART it every week (this can be the “offering that doesn’t fit in the plate” shown on the powerpoint screen or lifted high... Live and ever changing. Kids will grow up knowing their gifts are a valued part of interpreting the Bible in the faith community)
    D. TALK about it with the kids, microphone in hand. Why not turn the children’s sermon into the “children doing the sermon”? If they've just learned the story an hour ago, interview them and have them tell it to you AND the congregation the story and what it means. You could use our Bible Song cartoon slides on the screen in the background and simply ask, “what happened next? What happened next? Who said what?” Have the kids raise their hands, then stand – so everyone can see them – as you interview them on the story. Then - viola -  they pop up and TEACH it to the church, singing and signing as they go.

This is great post-modern post-television GEN-Y activist worship modeling. (How do you become a worship leader? You lead worship!) This is great “priesthood of all believers”. This is great brain science. And it may be a sneaky stewardship program if the majority of parents of the Sunday School kids  come to worship the majority of Sundays. (My kid’s leading worship... I’ve got to be there).

Tell the Stewardship committee you’re going to multiply the worship attendance, joy and involvement of marginally active parents by a factor of 10 and see what that does to the budget!

They shouldn’t have a problem with that.

A Little Grace

Layton "Skip" James, principal keyboardist from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, just wrote and sent me a little grace while he was sitting waiting for his car to get fixed. Now there's a good way to use your time.

 

A Good Friday Thought on Leadership and the Future of Dying Denominations

There are only three kinds of pastors.

Risk Takers
Care-Takers
Undertakers

You must decide who you will be.

And what you decide will determine where you go, who you lead, who will follow, and who you will leave behind... on purpose.

Happy Good Friday.

Robbing Grandma

Okay, this is worth a look.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fDmp967UMds

She reminds me of my mom. It's what I know she would have done if someone had tried to rob her in a Walmart parking lot.

God Block

Yesterday while keynoting an event in Port Charlotte, FL, with the Presbyterians I began thinking out loud about the future of internet connectivity.

I had seen Paul Allen of Microsoft earlier on a taped PBS show talking about "by the time our grandchildren are our age, there will never be a time when they are NOT connected to the internet."

I began to wonder what that will mean to the human experience. Think about it.

1. They will live with constant and immediate access to all of the knowledge of the world.
2. They will live in constant and immediate communication with all of their friends... except those they choose to block.
3. They will live with constant and immediate access to all entertainment
4. They will live with constant and immediate access to virtual sex (some of it with real people, most of it with avatars who will be a lot more pleasurable, beautiful, made-to-order and perfect than wrinkled, flawed, real humans)
5. Predator posers will have constant and immediate access to prey (unless, of course, virtual prey is a lot more pleasurable, beautiful, made-to-order and perfect than wrinkled, flawed, real humans)
6. Most people will go on vacation in virtual reality
7. Some people will never come back
8. You'll be able to sit down for "Highs and Lows" every night with your kids and friends in a 3D Holographic representation of anyplace in the world. ("Highs and lows on top of Haleakala in Maui tonight! Five Minutes!)
9. Prison might simply be a sentence to go "off grid" for six months
10. Some parents will put a "God Block" on their kids, and every message, thought, reference to God, the Bible, or Jesus will not be allowed to pass into their minds

I invite my friends to take these 10 into youth group, young adults group, or an adult group this week and begin the discussion of what the world will be like when our kids are "NEVER NOT" connected to the internet.

If you can each come up with a few more thoughts for my list, email them to me, I'll collect them, and we'll post the list in a later blog. (Maybe 95 Theses?)

Rich  (email to ramelheim@faithink.com)

The Pop Star on TV (to "The Farmer In The Dell")

The pop star on tv
The pop star on tv
Higher than a satellite
The pop star on tv

MyVoice Research of the United Kingdom surveyed parents of small children and discovered:

• 44% said they were singing pop songs and TV theme tunes instead of nursery rhymes
• 40% cannot recite a single nursery rhyme all the way through

For those lamenting the lack of Biblical literacy, one might wonder about the effects of a general cultural  illiteracy.

What do we lose when the old stories, the old rhymes, the old songs that had been part of the common life experience for the masses are replaced by the pop version of everything?

(And, to be fair, one might ask "What might we gain?")

Just for the fun of it, I'd like to add my own new rhyme today to become part of the bedtime stories of future generations of kids. Let's do it to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell."

The Pop Star on TV

The pop star on tv
The pop star on tv
Higher than a satellite
The pop star on tv

The pop star takes a wife
Some Qualudes, crack, a knife
Higher than a satellite
The pop star takes a wife

The wife takes lawyer
A stalker, thief and voyeur
Higher than a satellite
The wife takes al lawyer

The lawyer takes his time
And steals their every dime
Higher than a satellite
The lawyer takes his time

The time takes its toll
The Network cuts his role
Higher than a satellite
The time takes its toll

The toll stands alone
His agent won't pick up the phone
Higher than a satellite
The toll stands alone

h/t: churchrelevance.com

Get Paid Four Times

In the "Life is too short to waste" department, when I give talks to high school seniors I tell usually them they shouldn't consider taking any job that doesn't pay them at least four times.

Payment 1    You get to do what you love
Payment 2    You get to work with people you really enjoy
Payment 3    You can make some money... Enough to take care of those you love and to give away to others in need
Payment 4    The work does something good for the world... And hopefully something that will outlast you so you will keep on giving long after you are gone

You can always make more money. You will never make more time.

So, you gotta ask yourself today: Are you working at a job that only pays you once?

My advice? Take that job and shove it. The quicker the better.

It's time you made a much better return for your only non-renewable resource.