Drink This Brother, May It Serve You Well

Episode 7 is up! Listen and you can get the scoop and the skinny on the differences between Sacraments and Ordinances.

Who cares? This is a good questions and I'm glad you asked. A great number of disagreements about church life and practices emerge out of a misunderstanding (or lack of understanding) of the theology of that tradition. Why is the priest placed on a pedestal (metaphorical and literal)? Why does the minister wear a robe? Why doesn't the minister wear a robe? Do I have to be baptized to take communion? When we don't know our theology our answers become pragmatic and usually the theology becomes watered down and vapid. Or a conflict emerges within the church because of the lack of theological acuity. So it is important to understand what it is that your tradition practices and then to decide if it is something you can ascribe to.

The other reason it is important for Charley and I to talk about the differences between Sacraments and Ordinances is that is makes us sound smart.

Here are the books referenced in the podcast:

Systematic Theology: Roman Catholic Perspectives. Francis Schussler Fiorenza and John Galvin eds.

Doors to the Sacred by Joseph Martos

A Baptist Manual of Polity and Practice by Norman Maring and Winthrop Hudson

Baptist Sacramentalism, Anthony Cross and Philip Thompson, eds.

Promise and Presence by John Colwell










From Watcha' Reading

Activate by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Seriously, Tell Me the Honest Truth...

This post corresponds with episode 6

Hopefully by now you have listened to our third brilliant podcast on preaching and are thirsting for more. Hopefully.

If I am to reiterate anything I think it would be honesty. We need to be honest with our congregation. This means sharing when we aren't sure about the text we invit the congregation to wrestle with us. It means sharing our doubts and our own confusion. This even means that there may be moments and times when we may not have a neat and tidy conclusion. Yet I believe people relate more with the honesty of the preacher than with the superior know-it-all answers of a preacher. We need to be honest with our preaching, our spirituality, and our whole lives.

I may be onto something with this honesty thing. Maybe I should start a speaking circuit where I call on people to stop the madness and be honest with themselves. Then they can rebuild their homes (lives) with honest materials (props to Six Feet Under).

I know Charley and I said we would post examples of the outlines we use to prepare our sermons and hopefully we will do that soon. While you are waiting, feel free to browse the books mentioned on the podcast:

The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative by Hans Frei - see the previous post

The Art of Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter

Exploring the Texture of Texts: A Guide to Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation by Vernon Robbins

Sociology and the Jesus Movement by Richard Horsley

From Watcha Reading:

Jerusalem, Jerusalem by James Carroll

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Don't forget, your comments on itunes makes a big difference and feel free to visit our Facebook page.

You can hear the podcast via non-itunes on the following link.