I am live blogging the Rob Bell, Shane Hipps and Pete Rollins, event in Grand Rapids for Zondervan. New posts are at the top with content and commentary (my commentary in italics). Feel free to jump in with your ideas, reactions, and opinions. Read Sunday’s reflection HERE.
———————————————————————————————————————————————-

9:33—prayer…DONE. Come back tomorrow at 9am for the last day (9am-5pm)

“That was for me.” That’s what should be said at the end of a sermon…

9:28—A sermon creates a picture, a space, an image, an experience, an encounter, a world, a place that allows people to find themselves in it. It is focused yet open, said and yet unsaid, defining and yet imagining, resolute and yet unresolved. The parables are like this in many ways…they create space in which people can enter and say: “THATS ME!” The beauty of a sermon is met where EVERYONE are in at the moment in their journey and invited to the next place in their journey.

Knowing, arranging the parts is creating space for ALL people to enter into the MOMENT, MOVEMENT, and MYSTERY in the Text in the place in their particular journey, in order to bring them to the next level in that journey. I like this!

9:15—Storyboarding is the next topic. Check out the pict:

There were 4 parts, 5 parts, 6 parts, a circle which led to God saying 3 things. He memorizes the sermon by breaking it down into it smallest parts. So a 40 min sermon comes down to the pieces. Encouraged to start naming the parts. Take each part of the sermon and use a physical prop to remind yourself of the next part.

WOW this is helpful! As I wrote below, when I was at Mars that white board was amazing! I remember he also used 11×14 sized paper to storyboard it out. At my early stage of the game seeing how other great communicators “do it” is so helpful. Again, its about preparation and deliberateness with the Kyregma Event.

9:06—As I’m listening to this I’m reminded of a session I sat in at Mars where I was invited to listen to a sermon series on forgiveness and give feedback with 10 other people. I was very impressed with the amount of detail that goes into Rob’s sermons. Lots of thought and care given to the Art of the Sermon. He takes the performance very seriously. I was struck then when I saw him map out the passage and sermon storyboard style and am also struck to day with the care he takes.

Though it all may sound manipulative and over the top…knowing the parts, the elements, etc….I think he is very serious about reclaiming the Art of the Sermon. I for one am sick of the Death Drum Beat of the preached message! Now I may have a vested interest because I’m and MDIV student, so I sorta NEED the Sermon Event to make a living 🙂 (sorta kidding), but I do see a powerful place for Kyregma within the Church. We DO need to reclaim the Event of the Sermon…and while there are ways to contextualize that Event for our shifting, emerging culture, there is room for proclamation. And I see this whole exercise this evening is about pastors (ME!) taking Kyregma seriously.

This commentary on the practical elements of Kyregma with Shane’s is pretty powerful and leaves a lot to work through.

9:01—Also note these 7 elements, too: speed, intensity, tension, pacing, tone, posture, arc. The parts are handled differently…moments of the text and in stories and illustrations need these 7 things differently. Need to understand, know the parts and how they are affected by these 7 elements. All of the parts relate to the other parts, especially when the 7 elements are applied properly.

Take great care for the opening…and watch openers that overwhelm! Sometimes the sermon can’t recover from the opening. And realize that if you help answer the question: what is this about? at the beginning it keeps people engaged and interested. The first 10 min people are interested because its the next section of the service anyway…so share the things that need to be shared at the beginning to continue to keep interest…that leads into a story.

No rules to this Art of Sermoning and get it across than at least know what you are doing. Know how to start the thing and know how to recover from it.

8:45—Everything in a sermon is related to everything else in the sermon. We need to be able to: name the parts, know the parts, be aware of the parts, feel the parts, and step outside of the parts.

So when I approach the Text and craft a sermon…we ask these questions to move through the passage.

Parts and pieces of a sermon: reading the passage, information, story, question, picture, rant, action, insight, observation, statistics, declaration, invitation. But if either of these parts are exalted above any of the other then the sermon doesn’t work. If just information…people get bored. If just questions…people wonder if you know anything.

Examples—Observation…you just ask: what about this of life? Or statistics use to show how many people cant afford heat or dont have water or are unemployed…Declaration: here is what we are about and what God is doing and here is what God is about. Invite people to trust God with your grocery bill.

The idea is to use pieces of these parts…but know what you are handling. In order to use the parts you need to KNOW the parts and KNOW the piece of the Text. Know why using the parts and arrange them appropriately. And you move from Statistics to Information to Story to Observation to Invitation…as an example of how a sermon might “move”

8:35—Rob suggests 3 possible ‘things’ within a piece of the Text to ‘use’ to unpack the teaching.

1) While teaching he suggests to center on a MOMENT in the narrative, and build out from there the historical, cultural, etc…rings to explain the point of the narrative. Example given was when Jesus cursed the fig tree…so idea is to focus the MOMENT on the fig tree and explain out from there. A teaching with an idea just grabs and pops out at you. There is a MOMENT in the text that the text swivels on…and you move out from there, from that moment.

So the teaching centers on a MOMENT…which is really the BIG IDEA of the passage from what it seems like he is saying. Perhaps there are 2 or 3 or more moments? Do you just pick one and focus one it?

2) A teaching also focuses on a MOVEMENT…something is happening in the journey of a person of a narrative. And you follow the story of the person. Less a MOMENT but a MOVEMENT that unfolds.

There can also be a MOVEMENT of thoughts…a progression of ideas within a passage, like the Sermon on the Mount. All sorts of meaning and applications being to pop and crackle and progress.

As an example: Psalm 1(really all the Psalms are an example)….walk, stand, sit. There is a MOVEMENT to this text from walking to standing to sitting. He acted out the walking, the standing, and the sitting on an orange boxcrate to symbolize how sin works. A MOVEMENT in the act of Sin or the passage. And can use questions to provoke: is there anything you are waling in, standing in, or siting in?

3) Another thing to look for is MYSTERY. Comparison of Phil. 1:6 and Genesis 1 given as an example….the big words of Phil (began, good work, completion) compared with Gen (beginning, good, completed). When you open yourself to the God of the Universe you open yourself up to the same God who created and crafted the whole universe.

So in this example there isnt a MOMENT or MOVEMENT…there is a MYSTERY to the passage because it relates to the mystery of God. There is an insight within the piece of the Text which is simply mysterious…and there is a way to unpack that mystery and relate it to people’s lives.

Revelation 4 unpacked as another example of MYSTERY and related to worship. We gather to remind ourselves that we are not the center of the universe, that I am not on the throne…the power of the imagery in Rev. 4 can be unpacked with powerful, MYSTERIOUS language to relate back to corporate worship. It is a picture of infinite depth and MYSTERY that can be explored, explained, and related.

So as I explore a piece of the Text there is a MOMENT, MOVEMENT, and MYSTERY of that piece.

8:08—A sermon has an engine, an energy source. A sermon comes from somewhere.

Questions to ask about a sermon: Why are you saying this? Why do we need to hear this? Why should we care? Why do you care? In 30 seconds…what has compelled you to say certain things to this particular people at this particular time.

Idea is if I can distill what I am teaching on into 30 seconds then I am prepared well…I’ve done what I am supposed to do to prepare and study for the Sermon Event. I should be able to boil down the point of the sermon God has placed on my heart, that i have sensed is needed for my community, down to 30 seconds. Even more: I should be able to answer the WHY questions in 30 seconds…good mark for me as I prepare!

Now is the time to recapture the sermon, especially the preparation of the sermon and the ability to boil down the point of the sermon for the sake of the community in which I am ministering.

8:01—prayer and now Rob Bell on the sermon. Why some work and some don’t

7:48—comedy act…

7:39—finished a time of worship, now watching some vids before a Rob Bell talk.

Some recap: Shane’s commentary was very interesting for me….It seems like he made some broad brush strokes regarding the evolution of ecclesiastical culture. To pigeon hole the entire development of current ecclesiastical trends (ie moving toward Jesus from Paul) to an evolution from a word based to image based culture seems a bit of a far stretch…from my perspective that evolutionary shift is largely based on the cultural shift thanks to postmodern philosophy and postmodernism. Our current culture rejects more linear, exclusive, cerebral, rational theological monologue in favor of an ethical, dialogical, narrative approach to spirituality. Current pop-evangelical theological reflection seems to pit Pauls BELIEFS against Jesus’ ETHICS, which in some sense is a false dualism yet convenient categoricalization, but also perhaps more reflective of our cultures trend toward embracing many beliefs systems that hold to a basic, gut ethic…which Jesus seems (on surface) to hold, rather than Paul.

So perhaps, the shift has more to do with how the world interacts with spirituality in general, rather than technology.

I did appreciate his 3 fold SURPRISES. THAT made the biggest impact on me in his section. It really helped me think through how I walk with people through the Text and bring them to a conclusion and how I provoke people…or surprise people into seeing differently and dreaming about the Reign of God descending to Earth, right now.

I also am curious why The Story that Rob was encouraging us pastors to tell was missing an explanation of the Event of the Cross, the point at which God objectively dealt with the three objective realities of evil, sin, and death. While I absolutely applaud his emphasis on God’s original intent for Creation and provoked us leaders to begin the Story at the BEGINNING rather the MIDDLE with sin or heaven/hell (as I say in my own book), I dont understand HOW he understands God is returning all of Creation to the way he intended it. While he also emphasized the resurrection as key to the New Creation, I am confused HOW even the resurrection is made possible or actually does something for us without and emphasis on the Event of the Cross. I would have liked for him to unpack his understanding of the Life and Death of Jesus along side the Resurrection to explain how Rescue is made possible, and how God is restoring creation back to the way he originally intended it to be. Though I know he’s committed to Jesus and resurrection, this part of the story wasn’t exactly clear. But maybe my reaction is because I’m personally committed to understanding Jesus and the Rescue Event as the Victorious Obedient Substitute (a melding of Christus Victor, Recapitulation and Penal Substitution).

I was also struck with the absence of judgement in this Story. He seemed to allude that recreation, renewal, and restoration was for “all things”…was universal. Part of the Story that Jesus certainly tells has an element of judgement and separation of those who believe/act from those who do not believe/act. It is very unclear 1) if there is judgement in the Story we pastors are supposed to be communicating and 2) if we are supposed to talk about the reality of judgement in the Story we tell.

Again, I’m thankful for a ‘retooling’ of our communication of the Story, but the absence of the Event of the Cross and judgement was confusing.

Some thoughts along the way…

DONE FOR THE AFTERNOON…COME BACK AT 7PM!

READ MORE IN SHANE’S BOOK: Flickering Pixels.

4:09—Shane Interview

Rob: What about someone who makes some short films that you may know? Some of the warnings and realitiies?

Shane: Something happened to Rob when he put his image to film is he became a celebrity. Something interesting about celebrities. Before film we had heros. At the rise of the image is that a celebrity is a celebrity for being known. They are famous for being famous…not for doing something to contribute to the world like, heros. Rob has done things…but what he has done is lost. When he travels people ask about the scene he shot in LUMP…not the books he’s written. People started flocking to him because he was seen and recognized, and what he has done and written has been co-opted. Its just the reality. The NOOMA videos prevent him from having a normal life…because its an image medium he is branded.

Rob: Different between screen technology with rear vs front projection

Shane: TV is rear…light comes to you. Film is light coming on. In rear projection audience processes content in right brain ways. Images that are front light are processed in the left side of the brain. Studies have been done that are projecting the same thing to two audiences with different reactions…one laughed the other didnt. INTERESTING!

Rob: Sometimes in the church there is the NEXT THING and if you are not on that you are missing it. With you there isnt a judgement, but keeping a prophetic distance to speak into it.

Shane: To become prophets with both eyes open. Some are technophiles and technophobes. We know one eye close wont get us anywhere…we need to hold both in tension and at bay.

Like Twitter…some are trying to use it in worship. Twitter seeks to simplify everything. The prob is not simplicity itself. The prob is that those simple lines of a poem come after complexity. Two kinds if simplicity…on the front side and on the far back side.

Front Side—God loves you everything is going to be OK

Back Side—At the end of life, Great Depressions war, etc…God loves you everything is going to be OK

Twitter is the first…it is about fast and speed. NOT PROCESSING or complexity. When that happens in a community its: give me your best christian cliche and fill the whole space. Prevents us from getting to the profound things that should be simple. If we want to redeem it maybe get poets to do it…

Rob: What are the FOUR QUADRANTS of new technology

Shane: McLuhen found that every medium has 4 basic effects…book called LAWS OF MEDIA. Conviction always and only 4 laws…

1) Every medium EXTENDS Extends or amplifies a human function.

2) Every medium OBSOLESCES. Changes the function of a previous function…not get rid of but change the function of. Every medium will obsolesce another medium.

3) Every medium RETRIEVES a medium from the past. Internet retrieves the telegraph.

4) Every medium REVERSES on itself when overextended.

Every medium wanders in these laws.

DONE…and now an interview with Rob.

3:43—SECOND: THE ART OF LETTING GO.

Need to let go of the need to be affirmed of the message…and invested in the message. When you let people know you will speak truth and letting go to their expectations and impressions. The outcomes dont matter…its to offer my gifts and keep offering it fearlessly.

When you hit a home run not much more sweeter or a lame duck hurt far less. You just do what you’re supposed to do because God made you that way.

VERY CRUCIAL FOR ALL ARTISTS TO LEARN. The best ones are the ones who create because THEY HAVE TO, no matter how it lands.

MUST BE FREE FROM THE OUTCOMES…need to let go.

May we all learn the art of letting go…

3:38—As an example…WATER INTO WINE

He used a Rhetorical Surprise...It’s an odd miracle. The first miracle Jesus does is TURN WATER INTO WINE? Why? REALLY?! Effort to plant the itch…”yeah thats weird, I didnt think of that” sort of feeling.

Showed the way in which Wine means something different in the OT…without wine there is no joy. And everytime they talk about the Day of the Lord and the KoH they talked about WINE…the ABUNDANCE of the Lord. So it was symbolic for what they had already known…which resolves the rhetorical question: what an odd miracle to do as your first miracle.

Then found an exegetical surprise: Notice the container, not the content in John 2:6…John goes out of his way to explain what was used to hold the water. he was thinking why would John tell us about the ritual washing jars to hold the water. And made some discoveries about the types of jars…and shared them with his people. And he completely impurifies the purified jars of the religious tradition of the jewish people.

And his SO WHAT? Linguistic surprise: when Jesus comes into our lives he comes and bursts all of our expectation…how “limber” is our own soul to Jesus coming in and exploding our own religious and life practices.

2:33—2 practices to help become better at preaching.

MUST UNDERSTAND SERMON AS AN ART FORM! Primary before understanding the 2

FIRST: THE ART OF SURPRUSE.

In any age, especially ours, you need to keep them guessing. Surprise is what helps them stay with you…many ways to create ahh-haa moments.

1) exegetical surprise: archaeological dig…part where looking at culture, context, lit theory, and language to understand the world the text comes out of. Hard because of all the scholarship so hard to discover something new. Worth the effort because its gold and helpful for people. TWO COMPONENTS: begins with questions…what am I wondering and what is curious about the text; and then how do you get the answers…scholarly apparatus, meaning need to get into journals and commentaries to find the answers. When you get into territory so familiar (christmas and easter) move into…

2) rhetorical surprise: for TITANIC we knew how it was going to end but the WAY you get there can be a surprise…when you lead people into the desert, get them thirsty and uncomfortable, wait and wait, and then bring them back for water. About creating dissonance when there wasnt any…making something that was familiar unfamiliar…creating a tension that they didnt have and then resolve it.

3) Linguistic surprise: words are like stones at a bottom of a river…over time they become smooth and loose edge. THis is about mastering the art of language so you can recharge words and let them rupture the mind in new ways. Finding different words and language to describe ancient concepts.

3:13—Implication for preaching

Printing press transformed church from experiential, mystical environment to a lecture hall. Sacramental to Word oriented structure and service. Information and theology was now the importance of church. Sermons in the lecture hall/printing press era lasted 2 hours. Edwards would preach 4 hours…with a manuscript and read. These were sermons for the MASSES, not simply scholarship.

The people were moved to tears and repentance…says something about the capacity of the audience that was shaped by the power of the spoke word and the printed word.

After the print age was TELEVISION giving birth into the broadcast era. Church was now studio. Now authority to preach was on entertainment, practicality, and engaging, so was popularity.

After the internet invention it was changed again: church became the coffee shop. Authority in the coffee shop is ignored…multiple voices, not only one. Internet authority is not based on one but on conversation and multiple voices. More and more communities of faith will try and create a coffeeshop. Twitter gives the illusioin of massive amounts of people having a coffeeshop. Authority is diffused. Preacher is no longer the authority of the argument but the STARTER…community decides the flow of the sermon and where it goes.

In different eras this is what happens.

The coffeeshop is not the only good thing to do…because we live in an era where the options and complexity of MEDIUMS IS STACKED and VARIED.

because we no longer live in the print age…the capacity of an audience is shrinking enormously. because of that the preachers must find a way to bridge the gap. never been harder to preach…the demand of preachers is going up.

3:00—Warning to Christian culture…we are so quick to make judgements on twitter, facebook, iphones, internet…just step back take a deep breath and be aware of what’s happening. If we can first understand before we critique we are better off.

2:57—How image culture is shaping Christianity.

In the image age we move from churches that look like traditional pew based…to more experiential, relational, and communal candle-circle situations.

How we read the bible changes. The gospels have more of the images and stories of Jesus…the letters are of Paul and Peter. In Middle ages the letters fade and the gospels were primary. Difficult to depict Eph 2:8 in a picture. So the stories were communicated through images. When the printing press was invented and literacy rose the letters were embraced as primary. St. Paul was thought by Luther, along with John, to be more primary over Matthew Mark and Luke which are more concrete and image oriented. Pauls letters and Johns gospel are linear, abstract, and sequential. The reason they were thought to be better because they told the theology of Jesus over the stories of Jesus.

Something is happening now…the pendulum is heading back…Jesus is primary now because of the stories. The center of the faith is now Jesus because of the ethics and stories found in the gospels on jesus, and Paul is being reinterpreted and relegated to the back because of the concrete and word oriented nature. Image based culture is to thank for Jesus becoming primary again…this is what is happening. We become what we behold.

*this is a wild leap, from my perspective…perhaps there are other cultural and ecclesiastical reasons why ethics (Jesus) is being trumpeted over beliefs (Paul)…To simply say it is because we are becoming an image culture is an interesting presumption.

2:49—The west uses linear left brain oriented phonetic alphabet symbols to communicate…the east uses symbols that require intuition that read pictographs. The west uses syllogism and logic to communicate (All men are humans, all humans have brains, all men have brains)…the easy Yin-Yang to communicate the interdependence of life through image. We are progressively moving as an eastern culture as we move to an image based culture.

Even as we text and twitter and blog are creating a right brain literacy.

To the left brain a 🙂 is a colon and a closed parenthesis…but to the right a smiley face.

to left brain : – d ~ is a colon, dash, D, and a squigly…to right brain it means smoking dope.

People are creating images out of former linear, logical and sequential alphabets.

Corporations are doing this….L means nothing on its own…its a letter that is designed to mean nothing on its own. But LEXUS co-ops the L as a brand and instills it with meaning: luxury, status, money, prestige, success.

Images ALWAYS WIN. You will remember what you SEE far more easily than words READ. It will highjack and capture your imagination. With an image you can replace all the images conjured through words to create a shared experience…the image always wins.

Why does this matter for pastors and people in the church?

Question we have to ask is: What does the image DO? What do words DO? Then we can ask should I or should I not use this…no good or bad, just what I want to accomplish.

If you want to unleash a persons imagination, then images a very poor…words should be used.

But if you want to cultivate a shared experience and impact…images are perfect.

2:38—Now the current digital age is a hall of mirrors that reflects endless mediums. We have to turn back some of the technologies and not explore the technologies in order to understand the age…instead of looking at 1996 we look to the 1850’s to understand what happened to the medium and technology in our currentish age.

The 1850’s we have a new electronic age which exploded the potential for communication. Starting at the electronic revolution we see how radically we’ve been altered. For instance one exceptional invention that shaped us: the Photograph. Recaste the world as an Icon. Retrieved elements of the Medieval world of images to communicate…but we change our capacity for abstract thought in an age of just images (perhaps having now?)

The boy is sad….is processed differently than a picture of a sad boy. A picture is worth a thousand word…a beautiful saying but misses the truths of the two mediums: assumes interchangeable…but different modes and communicating and discourse. THEY ARE DIFFERENT MEDIUMS, there for the MESSAGE and how the message is PROCESSED is DIFFERENT.

“The boy is dead” is ABSTRACT. The image is CONCRETE you see it and it represents an experience, a holistic experience. The sentence is rational and requires skills to decode…the image requires intuition. Left brain for the sentence and right brain for the image. Images pin the logical side of the brain to the back of our skulls.

2:28—We BECOME what we BEHOLD. Our thinking patterns actually mirror the things we use to think with. Gutenbergs printing press shaped how we also make cars and cookies and bottle Coke. Before the printing press there weren’t pews…so the sequential linear printing of words on page reshaped how we do life, without us knowing about it.

Even reshaped the gospel: Apologies for Sins + Believe in Jesus=Go to Heaven. Linear, sequential process is with most of the evangelistic tools….the bias against feelings in the age of Reason and printing influenced the revulsion to FEELINGS in the acceptance and communication of the gospel…

2:22—Used to work for Porche as a big marketing/advertising director. Then went to seminary and is now a Mennonite pastor. Had vocational whiplash. But while in advertising he had to inhabit the mind of consumers and figure out what influenced them.

Telling that Marshall McLuhan is the most important thinker since Einstein, Darwin, Pavlov. He revolutionized theory of communication and oracle of electronic age. Began to see what he was experiencing and exploring had greater implications for people of faith than those in the previous expression.

Reason: Christianity is fundamentally a Communication Event. A God revealing God’s Self to the world. He used a variety of mediums to communicate that event: fire, scrolls, people, Jesus…

We know this because we practice communication daily. We know: the METHODS always change but the MESSAGE stays the same. Translation of Greek/Hebrew into English is a new Method, but the Message hasn’t changed. Bedrock foundation of which we navigate the changes of culture and be faithful to the message God has been given throughout history.

BUT what McLuhan taught us is that the MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE. The way you say something matters as much or more than WHAT you say. “Our conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts…(is TV good or bad…YES…depends on how it is used) is the numb stance of the technological idiot. For he content of any medium is the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watch dog of the mind…” -McLuhan Our content is the slight of hand while the magician slips the watch from the wrist. Medium works beneath conscious awareness.

2:12—Rob and Shane Hipps on stage.

2:10—Thecommon.org introduction…by Rich Devos

Idea is that people want to help each other…and they make it easier. They let people who have needs and abilities within church communities to talk to each other online instead of coordinate it with a person. Not a social network…goal is to connect people of abilities to people who have needs (a person needs a pickup truck another one has a pickup truck to lend).

How it works: you give a need with a short name and a description…how many people, a specific time, and whether for someone else or me. Needs are matched by category. On the dashboard of those with abilities you get alerts based on your abilities (transportation, yard work, etc…)

Better facilitate human interaction. It also allows for the needs of the city to flow into the church.

Cost is $1 per active member of the church.

1:54—getting ready for Shane Hipps

END…LUNCH. Be back at 2pm

11:52—Christianity is a religion that critiques religion…it’s an institution that critiques itself.

Pyro Theology: the only church that illuminates is a burning one (a Spanish heretic quotation). The church should be in flames…consumed. What is the church that burns…burns down sometimes, burns with fire? He wants to create space to engage in Tranformance Art, encounter one another and a radical conversion movement.

When 17 had a moment when his substance changed. Was dead and then alive. Not a religious sense. Christianity promises substantive transformation…for a lucky some it happens in church.

11:46—Rob: We are not the Bread of Life but can create space to give people a wife of the Bread…to get people get a whiff of God. Talk about that.

IKON evangelism gets people the the space of not needing God…trys to convince God is not there nor needed in order for people to have space to find him. Get people to the point of not needing God…WE do not give God, God gives God (Augustine). They dont give people God at IKON, but create space in order for people to find him.

11:37—Preaching is not descriptive, but performative. Not primarily trying to convince this….but do something. Parables try to get beyond the head and rupture something in the heart. We are called to create ruptures. Preaching is not giving water to those thirsty…its about giving salt to naked thirsty people to create thirst.

11:31—Rob: You talk about the cognitive self…the center from you actually live. The sermon is about affecting the cognitive self…unless that center is violently rocked you can keep believing with the outer self. But how does rhetoric transform the cognitive self.

Pete: Often people believe through the minister…or with a band that plays an emotional self they cry on your behalf. In the church as long as Rob believes we dont have to take belief seriously ourself. That happened with his first book…where people affirmed doubt and irony and insurrection, but they continued to allowed the structure to believe on their behalf (ie singing songs that Jesus is your boyfriend).

We need to convince the structure to change…which leads to our own change. Rebirth: you dont experience birth it is what opens you up to experience. Religious experience is not an experience, God is that which transforms how I interact with all objects in the world. he isn’t an object in the world, but transforms how I interact with the world.

11:24—Preaching is a Transformational Art where you try to convince the social self the inner self.

The church is the site of insurection…that is not about convincing the mind but transforming the social self.

*there was a 12 min of stories and parables that was difficult to blog…

11:07—Rob: Had a meal with IKON (a once a month something else non-church gathering the Pete heads up in belfast.) Tell us about IKON. Examples of what has been done.

Pete: Sometimes you need to give up values in order to get new ones. That was IKON. Had drink with French teacher and said he wanted to do something in that Pub. Wanted to do something of spirituality and faith and poetry and music.

What does it look like: Have groups that meet around monthly gathering. non-membership course…not a member and do the non-membership course with a card that a non-memeber. Very key because they are trying to think for themselves and take responsibility for own beliefs. Role of a Christian leaders is to refuse to lead…a vital role. Someone has to refuse to lead and not take responsibility. Real role of the analyst is for the person to push back and refuse to be an analyst…we need people to refuse to analyze, but to put it back on people.

Last supper: 12 people meet over wine in upper room and invite a guest to share what they believe and why…if not like it its their last summer. Omega course…12 week course in how to exit Christianity (in response to Alpha course) Lots of people wanting to exit…its about exiting toxic religion and getting to a place to ask any questions.

Evangelism team: a group that waits to be evangelized and ask people to evangelize them in different religious groups. Powerless evangelism. Your ability to open up and listen creates good space.

Read great anti-christian thinkers to listen and learned and be transformed and changed by them during Lent.

Main gathering: Transformance Art—designed to facilitate a provocation, rupture and transformation.

10:51—Rob Bell’s good friend Pete Rollins. Interview style…

Prayer…END

10:15—A sermon is about helping people see this new creation with their own eyes.

Everything It brings hope not rooted in escape but engagement, not in evacuation but reclamation, not in leaving but in staying and overcoming. The resurrection is not rooted in a disembodied evacuation, but hope for this world that God is renewing, reconciling, etc…up til the escape is just hanging around (or DRESS REHEARSAL as Rick Warren says!) The hope for resurrection begins here and now. The engine of the hope comes from 1) something has gone down in resurrection that has affected everything here and now…or 2) something may happen somewhere in some time that may be nice…

A sermon is never surprised when grace, beauty, meaning, order, compassion, truth and love shows up in all sorts of unexpected people and places because it always has been God’s world, it is God’s world and it always will be God’s world.

The whole world is our rhetorical toolbox, because its all God’s

Only allowed to draw truth from a few agreed upon sources? What’s Paul doing when he uses the poets from his day. If it helps my case then I can use it. “All truth is God’s truth.”

Of course there has been a significant amount of rebellion, disruption, sin…of course

but the resurrection is about a whole new creation bursting forth in the midst of us now. our task is to help people to have the eyes to see it for themselves.

The story anticipates the coming day and lives in the coming day right now….

So…there are just a few thoughts.

10:04—Implications: business (work, wage, things we need) is rooted in a common good.) What does it look like to think interterms of shalom of creation…triple bottom line: profits, environment, and people. If Gen 3 begins the story, then a split between Soil and Spirit: what I’ve been called to is simply to get out of the earth then the spiritual is all that matters (which is a classic GNOSTIC and PLATONIC way of thinking)…so the business woman’s work here on earth means nothing. In Gen 1 and 2 everything is united and blessed.

Art…got distracted…didnt get this one.

Rabbis say: God begins the story by separating light from dark…and that is our task. Discernment is the virtue for art.

We disparage art when we cant appreciate it for what it is and instead have to redeem it for a HIGHER PURPOSE.

Justice: Problems are in distribution…not the earth. Whats gotten in the way is disruption, participation…justice issues are things in their proper place. Justice is a natural part of the story God is telling.

If the story is about Gen 1 and 2 then God is putting everything back together.

“A sermon, then, is the continuing insistence that through the resurrection of Jesus a whole new world is bursting forth right here in the midst of this one and everybody everywhere can be part of it.”

*I wonder why it isnt that its the “continuing insistence that through the LIFE, DEATH, AND resurrection of Jesus a whole new world is bursting forth” There is this stark absence of the death of Christ on the Cross in this Story. I’m confused why that is the case considering that for the gospels it is a significant part of THEIR story…

9:48—He gets concerned people passing God as they are going up and He is coming down…laugh 🙂

John does something interesting

John 2-water into wine and first sign; 4 jesus heals the officials son; 5 heals at the pool; 6 bread; 6 water; 9 blind man; 11 raises lazerus from the dead, number 7. 7 is the number of creation.

When Jesus is resurrected in John 20…the eighth sign. If seven refers to the 1st week of creation, 8 refers to the 1st week of NEW CREATION. (hmmm, never heard that before)

Mary first thinks Jesus is a…GARDNER.

Old creation has a death problem…NEW CREATION doesn’t. Story is about Jesus’ resurrection beginning a new creation right here in the midst of this one. When we preach resurrection something big is going down in the midst of THIS creation now.

Story about resurreciton is God reaffirming goodness of creation. Free to take part of the creation and embrace it and guide it…it reminds us of the goodness of creation. Death that has stained and corrupted creation…under it all God called it good because he came to renew, reconcile, and restore. He is looking for helpers to do that….

The story is about anticipating the coming day when heaven and earth are one again (Heaven is where God is storing the earth’s future. ??) The story is about here and there coming together. When Jesus teaches to pray…live now in anticipation of what God will do for all of creation. Eternal life and life of heaven here and now…properly participating with God now.

*note: where was anything about the Christ Event…life…DEATH? He deals with Creation, Rebellion and Re-Creation…but not Rescue, very little with the Rescue Event of Christ and the Event of the Cross in particular….why? So what was the point of Christ: to simply start New Creation? Was there a real reason? Is the problem us? Is the real problem ME?

9:40—The story is about:

Renewing all things

Restoring all things

Reconciling all things (col 3)

ALL THINGS= means ALL THINGS. Jesus, Peter, Paul is about reconciling and rewnewing…ALL THINGS.

(then said there are a whole lot of theological things that could be said…but didnt say them…UNIVERSALISM?!)

If the Story begins in Gen 3 the Story is about getting rid of THE PROBLEM. It is the removal of sin.

If you begin in Gen 1 its about restoration of Shalom.

Central Argument: People listening to the sermon begin to pick up the larger story based on the bits and pieces you give them. If it begins in Gen 3 they will pick up the Story is about getting rid of sin. if you start in 1 its about the restoration of shalom. The removal of Sin is apart of the restoration of shalom, but must take its proper place.

Beginning in Gen 3 is telling people what people ARENT. In Gen 1 its What you ARE.

An evangelism method that begins with convinving people they are sinners is driven by a particular understanding of what the story is. Might be beginning late…need to begin at the beginning.

How about painting a picture of the GOOD world God created. Perhaps starting there and what it means to be human sin makes more sense…people get disruption of shalom and their participation in that.

If you begin in Gen 3 then the goal is disembodied evacuation….this place is jacked up and we need to leave, let me tell you how. Its easy to see the materiality as fallen….soil, wine, air is not fallen. Materiality is not the issue, but rebellion…the posture of the human heart and disruption of shalom. If only hear Gen 3 its easy to see as the MATERIAL as fundamentally flawed, except its the way God created it at the beginning.

Or participatory physicality…is the story about getting us out of here or about proper participation with our Creator in the ongoing creation of the world…bringing increase shalom to our world that he called God. if underneath it all, the preacher believes the action is somewhere else…people will pick that up after awhile.

9:32—Gen 3: The disruption of Shalom. There is proper shalom with each other, creation, and Creator. Multiple dimensions of Shalom. With Sin entering in you have a disruption of Shalom. We participate in disrupting shalom every time we sin…there is a way God intended things and we participate in that disruption.

Also a rebellion to the hierarchy. Sin is any way we rebel against the hierarchy. When we look to the physical to meet needs that only God can meet we look to the earth to fulfill what God only can we rebel against the hierarchy.

Participation: How do we participate in anyway that doesnt take Creation in the proper direction

Missing: Sin is missing the mark…this beautiful picture that Genesis paints. Gen. 3 is not how it begins or how it ends.

When we tell the story, we must make sure rebellion takes its proper place within the larger story. Sin, depravity, fallen nature is a temporary nature…must be taken seriously, but has its proper place. Need to make sure we get the parts properly aligned.

*Sounds much like a little project I published last year 🙂 (shameless self plug alert!)

Confession: is admission, recognition, declaration, and agreement

Repentence is RETURN. God invites us to return to our proper place in Creation. Creation is headed somewhere and we have a proper place in Creation…and repentence is returning to that proper place.

9:25—The story starts on EARTH. The end of the Bible. Rev 21.

The ending of the Story is HERE. Earth. It ends here on earth and the descriptions are very physical and participatory. The story starts here and the story ends here. Where the story ends is Here and at that point there isnt some place else, but God is here dwelling with us.

If you were to take sin out of the Bible you would have pamphlet. You would have 4 chapters: Gen 1 and 2, Rev 21 and 22. It starts with a Garden and ends with a City. Without sin you still have a movement. The earth is going somewhere. (reminds me of my prof friends book: HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH, by Dr. Mike Wittmer.)

When we look at the story it starts and ends here.

9:21—Gen 1:11-At the beginning, the Creator (who is distinct from creation…the creation is not to be worshiped) endowed the Creation to make more of itself…to produce and sprout. The creation is going somewhere, it has been given the ability to make more. They are empowered. Trees can make more trees. It is dynamic, not static, tomorrow will be different than today. The first people are placed in something that must be steward and guided…but thats going somewhere.

Gen 1:26,28-Creation is headed somwehere to properly order, guide, and steward. It provides, but cannot use it in such a way that it wont provide. There is harmoney, but within hierarchy, based on a Creator, who creates a Creation, and people are placed over Creation and have responsibility over it. If they try to be God it wont work, if they worship Creation that wont work. A harmoney that is in its proper place..theres an appropriate ordering of Creation.

Gen 1:28, 22—Soil and Spirit are united (ontologically?) God BLESSES creation…the action is here…not somwhere out there. Soil and Spirit are united…heaven and earth are one. There isn’t “somewhere else.” In Gen 1 and 2 it is all blessed holy and sacred. This is how the story starts. What ever it is that we love about life is all right here: asthetics, making things, relationships/partnership, worship, exploration, organizing, naming, learning, responsibiliy….everything we love to do is traceable to Gen 1 and 2.

*Initial thought: is there an ontologically distinction between Soil and Spirit? Seems like he said so before, but now not so sure….I appreciate him recognizing the beginning of the story is KEY, ebcause it shapes the rest. We are not going to be beamed off earth at the end, because we are earthlings, earth really is our home!

9:14—Where and how you begin the story and where and how you end the story shape and determine what story you’re telling. We sermonize out of whatever we think is the big big deep deep story that undergirds the whole thing. The first part of this sessions, is on the Story…

9:12—Rob Bell. Praying

9:00—Starting…with a vid

8:44—Todays Schedule:

9am: Rob Bell-The Story We’re Telling

11am: Pete Rollins-Returning to the New-An Intro to Transformance Art

2pm: Shane Hipps-How Technology Shapes the Sermon

7pm: Rob Bell-The Fig Tree and the Failure of Language

8:27—TEST….35 min till the big day. Read Sundays HERE.