A Wild Idea - Day 2

One brave soul has connected with my wild idea—way to go, Rocky! Today I want to explore how this joint sermon writing journey might be accomplished.

In case you haven’t figured it out, I am a technology “user” – needing someone to assist me in figuring out how to use various new technologies. My friend Glenn has lots of patience. I am hoping that he will assist me with the technology end of this project. Glenn is very involved with the integration of technology and education (he is also an Elder at my church and has sailed with me in the British Virgin Islands). He introduced me to blogs. He uses wikis with his work in the education field. With the “bribe” of another sailing trip I’m confident that he can educate me on the use of wikis.

When a couple more people sign on we will begin our communication and brainstorming. It is my vision and prayer that together we will come up with a topic for the series and tentative dates. I am open to it being an Advent or Lent series. We will share our ideas on the sermon topic for each week. We will coordinate our research and study so as to not duplicate efforts. Once we finalize the weekly topics we will determine who will be responsible for a given week. Individually we will work on an outline for “our” week. We will keep our outline available to the whole group so they can add their input. We will share possible illustrations – even if it has to do with someone else’s week! I do not envision writing out a complete manuscripts—I preach from on outline and study notes. There is a program (somewhat like Powerpoint) that is web based that I am hoping we can use. It allows the slides to be viewed over the internet (anyone will be free to view the presentation). While our churches may have very different “styles” of worship, we will suggest possible hymns and songs for each week. As we preach the series we will give constructive feedback to each other. It would be really cool if we could record the messages as podcasts to hear how each of us “tweaked” the message for our own style of preaching, church, setting and setting.

If the group is interested I could see us letting a church “magazine” know what we are up to and follow us through the project.

If this is a positive experience I would be willing to organize another event like this in the future.

My wife is in Baltimore this week. She has been part of a team of CPA auditors that is writing a nation-wide training course for her company. Each has a particular part to write. They give each other feedback and ideas. This week they are presenting the first “test” of the project. The are all giving each other feedback and making changes. Next week they will be in Washington, D.C. to “train the trainers.” Businesses are successfully doing what I am proposing we do. This combining of our passion for Christ, love of preaching and our gifts, talents and skill could help us deliver more effective sermons. The Holy Spirit is always the one who gives us inspiration and assists the person in the pew to hear God’s word. Yet, for some craze reason the God of the Universe uses pastors and teachers to be his spokespersons.

Please consider being a part of this crazy sermon writing team.