A Preaching Study Group at Peninsula Parish
In June this year our Vicar, Rev Chris Dodds, invited a group of parishioners to join him on Monday nights for a course on ‘Learning to preach sermons - focusing on Old Testament narratives’. This was such a great experience that we we’re asked to share it with our wider movement whānau.
Purpose
The aim was for us to learn about constructing sermons. First, we would learn to analyse, understand and interpret the source material, then, to refine a sermon’s outline, and, with group input, to build-in contemporary relevance. A further aim was for some of us to gain practice in actual sermon delivery. In this, each preacher would benefit from receiving group feedback.
The Experience
The group experience in these study sessions proved extraordinarily worthwhile. Usually, 8 to 10 of us came each time, all of us keen to learn and each of us, well prepared. The books we studied, Daniel and Ruth, provided rich rewards for our efforts at putting down ‘deeper roots of understanding’ into the scriptural material. The positive, sharing environment and combined desire to support each preacher by contributing ideas, lifted each group exercise to a higher plane. We all came to regard Monday nights as the high point of our week.
Structure
The group worked, first, with Daniel, Chapters 1-6 during June and July. Vicar Chris led off by delivering the first sermon and the sessions developed a pattern of reviewing the previous sermon, then, helping prepare for the next fortnight’s ones. While doing this we were gaining macro-skills in discerning the overall message of a Chapter while gaining the micro-skills of analysing it’s composition into scenes, dialogues, narration and the importance of the meaning of characters’ names. A cumulative sense grew, of the awesome power and compassionate wisdom of God expressed through the narrative.
Two Phases
In November, the group reassembled to work on sermons drawn from the book of Ruth. The emphasis shifted, a little, for this series. In the Daniel series, our focus had been on getting to grips with the meaning of the text or ‘climbing the mountain’ to hear God’s message. In the Ruth series we concentrated, more, on learning ways of looking for the text’s contemporary relevance – or ‘coming down the mountain’ – to deliver and apply the meaning in our lives.
Outcomes
In Ruth, we saw how a small community in Bethlehem, by remaining faithful, despite their adverse, wider social-context, became an integral part of the Messiah’s story, and of God’s care for the vulnerable, widows and refugees. The contemporary relevance shone forth. This sense was reinforced by the course’s timing - in the lead-up to Advent. We felt an empathy – of being a people emerging, from our own drawn-out, Covid-darkened times; and starting to glimpse the joy of a promised future, aglow, with the great light of Christ.
We look forward to more such courses, for not only did we see individual people benefit from the learning opportunity, but also, many in the congregation commented, favourably, on hearing the diversity of voices and experiences, coming from within their midst. Overall, you sensed a significant, positive contribution to the teaching ministry in the parish.
By Christopher Diggle
