I
think some of the problem is the muddle we've made between the words
preach and teach. In the whole Bible it's clear that the shepherds of
the believers, what ever you call them, Rabbi, Pastor, Elder, Overseer,
Bishop will teach the believers. It's always
teach. The word preach means proclaim and is always used for announcing
or proclaiming the good news to people who don't know it yet. It's a
word generally used outside the Bible for a Town Crier of sorts
announcing something of national importance - a battle won, a royal
birth. Teaching is an indoors activity traditionally done by someone
sitting down who includes questions to make his trainees think, and open
to questions. The two are not synonyms or interchangeable. Paul went
about preaching and teaching. So he was both evangelist - goodnews-ist,
and teacher.
In
my opinion we have compromised into our little holy huddles by doing a
"preach" on sunday morning - which effectively means we get neither
proper teaching as such nor real proclamation where the public can hear
it. I don't necessarily think that preaching has to be just open airs
these days, people don't live out doors much in our climate, but
anywhere where people go, including the media. I also feel that more
people should be properly taught how to be Bible teachers so that
teaching can happen much more in smaller formats, 100 people or less, so
that there can be question and answer.
I also like what Jo Storie says about teachers being open to discuss with wider sources than just their own narrow stream.
I
feel that if teaching within the church could give up it's preachy 6
feet above contradiction attitude then it would model a more reasonable
approach to discussion amongst Christians instead of the current
shouting at each other, especially through the press which makes me want
to cry.
Oo- I LiKE this! You know, I'd never really stopped to contextualise it before and consider how teaching in first century Palestine might differ from services today. Kerygma vs didasko are those the Greek words? One of my favourite services used to be Sunday 7 (at a different church); a mixture of short takes, discussion, multimedia, worship. I know that some who are introverts or just appreciate something more meditative might want to duck out of something like this, but for me it was perfect. It taught me better than most average sermons too, even the really good ones. That method is how I've always done my teaching - a mixture of discussion and question and exposition.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know what you mean about despairing about Christians shouting at each other in the media. Twitter is a particularly shouty place. It makes me wonder where the places for good discussion and exchange of ideas and working together at understanding God better are? (Long sentence, poor grammar - hope u know what I mean!) thanks so much for this! I'm v glad you wrote it anyway!
If we start throwing stones for long sentences I'd better hide :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the reasons I avoid Twitter. I'm not sure it it's Twitter that makes people shouty tho' or whether shouty is what we're doing and Twitter is just one of the places we do it. After my silent years in splendid isolation it was like coming out of prison, or maybe a monastery and seeing it all going on makes me want to cry. I suppose I'll get toughened up again. Or maybe I don't want to. But I don't want to go round shouting at them for shouting. I'm really glad that people are expressing opinions if it makes us think. There the reform and the enlightenment go hand in hand. I'm not going back in that box !
"And it came to pass when Jesus had finished commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and preach in their cities". Matt 11: 1. Clearly the Lord saw a difference.
ReplyDeleteYup :-)
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