Preaching Re-Imagined: The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith [Hardcover]

Doug Pagitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2005

Are we preaching too much, engaging too little? What is the role of preaching in the postmodern Church? Author and pastor Doug Pagitt looks at the kind of preaching that 'creates followers of God who serve the world well and live the invitation to the rhythm of God.' He introduces you to an approach to engaging with the Bible with a focus on three questions: -What kind of communities are we forming? (Sociology) -What story are we telling? (Theology) -How can we tell it more effectively? (Communications) These questions are asked through the introduction of Progressional Implicatory Preaching---an innovative way of catalyzing an open dialogue with active participants. Envision Preaching Re-Imagined as an agent in the creation of Christian communities, and take a hopeful look toward new approaches to encouraging the spiritual formation of your church body.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Doug Pagitt (BA Bethel College, MA Bethel Seminary) is pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis. He is part of the leadership of Emergent: a generative friendship among missional Christian leaders. Doug is married to Shelley and they are parents of four children, and is author of Preaching Re-Imagined, Church Re-Imagined, and BodyPrayer.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preaching Re-Imagined Copyright 2005 by Doug Pagitt Youth Specialties Products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020 are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49530. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pagitt, Doug, 1966- Preaching re-imagined : the role of the sermon in communities of faith / by Doug Pagitt. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-10: 0-310-26363-8 (pbk.) ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26363-0 (pbk.) 1. Preaching. I. Title. BV4211.3.P34 2005 251---dc22 2005002990 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: Today's New International VersionTM, TNIV Copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means---electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other---(except for brief quotations in printed reviews) without the prior permission of the publisher. Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties via e-mail ([e-mail]) to report URLs that are no longer operational and replacement URLs if available. Portions of text copied from Preaching and Preachers by Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Copyright 1972 by Zondervan Publishing. Used by permission. Editorial direction by Carla Barnhill Edited by Laura Gross Proofread by Janie Wilkerson and Kristi Robison Interior design by SharpSeven Design Cover design by Holly Sharp Jacket photography by David Studarus Author photo by Sarah Sampedro Printed in the United States 05 06 07 08 09 10 / DCI / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 SECTION ONE ANOTHER PREACHING BOOK? I am sitting inside the Open Book writing center in Minneapolis on a summer day in 2004. My head is full of wonderings. I wonder who you are. I wonder what kinds of people will read a book about preaching in the emerging church. I wonder if I have anything to say on the topic. I wonder if I have written a single line of any value. I not only wonder, but I also worry. I worry about the opinions of people who don't think a pastor and author of a book about preaching should worry about things. I worry about people reading my sometimes-uncertain thoughts on preaching. I worry about coming across as someone who thinks of himself as an expert---someone who knows more than you and will tell you how to preach. So please, as you read, keep your worried, wondering author in mind. I am a pastor who seeks to live in a community of people who are living out the hopes and aspirations of God in the world. Like many of you I play a particular role in my community. As the pastor I'm often referred to as 'the preacher.' And frankly, this is a role I no longer relish. There was a time when I did. There was a time when I felt my ability to deliver sermons was a high calling that I sought to refine but didn't need to redefine. Those days are gone. Now I find myself regularly redefining my role and the role of preaching. I find myself wanting to live life with the people of my community where I can preach---along with the other preachers of our community--- but not allow that to become an act of speech making. Instead I want it to be a living interaction of the story of God and the story of our community being connected by our truth telling, our vulnerability, and our open minds, ears, and eyes---all brought together by the active work of the Spirit of God as we 'Let the message of Christ dwell among (us) richly as (we) teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in (our) hearts' (Colossians 3:16). If I had my way, this book would be a conversation about these desires. Instead of your reading something I wrote, we would talk over a meal or in my family room or at your house. We would hear from one another and build on what each other says. While a book cannot be a full conversation, my hope is that I will at least add to the conversation you may well be already having on preaching. Please don't let the title of the book, Preaching Re- Imagined, throw you. I'm not prescribing a method for all churches of the future. In fact, I'm quite sure there is no one method. However, I am suggesting some deep considerations about the function and role of preaching within our communities of faith that will lead to particular practices---but these are not one-size-fits-all prescriptions. And in no way do I mean to suggest that I speak for all who choose to engage in preaching in the emerging world. Throughout the book I suggest 'progressional dialogue' (a phrase I made up) as a preferable alternative to 'speaching' (another new word meaning 'the style of preach- ing that's hardly distinguishable from a one-way speech'). In the spirit of dialogue I have designed this book to be as conversational and progressional as possible. HOW TO READ THIS BOOK The book isn't structured like a typical chapter book. It all begins in the next chapter where I lay out my basic premise and provide reference links to the 40 sub-sections that make up the last four sections of the book. Each subsection is designed to provide a more comprehensive discussion about a point I made in the opening chapter. Section 2 is also loaded with statements that may cause you to say, 'Hang on a minute,' or, 'You can't just say that without supporting it in some way.' That's the intent. Much like a conversation where the participants push one another to say more on the topics in which they have an interest, the next chapter is meant to get the conversation started. That being the case, I have included reference numbers within the text of section 2. These are not footnotes but rather clues as to where you can find more conversation about a particular point in later sections. From there you can either continue reading the rest of the book from start to finish, or you can jump between the points that interest you the most. For example, you might not be interested in the story of how I became a preacher but would prefer to go right to my suggestions on rethinking the role of the pastor. If so, you can skip point number five and go right to point 23. I admit that part of my desire to structure the book in this way is to justify my own reading habits. I do this with books all the time---just skip around and read the parts that interest me in the order that seems most interesting to me. Sometimes I don't even read all of it. But I feel like I'm cheating or missing out on something by not following the prescribed order. In this book, however, not only are you not cheating, but you're also encouraged to skip around as well. You won't miss out on something by doing so. In fact, I hope you'll gain something by taking the conversation wherever you want it to go. I've created a Weblog for those who wish to explore the ideas in this book with other readers. If you'd like to join that conversation, head to www.PreachingReimagined. com. The book is also designed with more open space than usual. This is to encourage you to write your thoughts, to talk back, to not just sit there and take it. Put your ideas on the paper right next to mine; they belong there. In fact, they're needed. As part of the process of writing this book, I read a number of books about preaching. Over and over I found myself scribbling notes in the small margins---things like, 'Yes, totally!' or, 'No, no, no.' But I felt like a vandal writing where my words weren't wanted, as if I was somehow defaming the book. On the contrary this book should not be left in its impersonal, published form. If it is, then it hasn't done its job of engaging you in the conversation.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties (August 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310263638
• ISBN-13: 978-0310263630
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #459,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Doug is a speaker and consultant for churches, denominations and businesses throughout the United States and around the world on issues of postmodern culture, social systems and Christianity.

Doug has worked in churches, for a non-profit foundation and owns three businesses in Minneapolis.

Doug's current professional endeavors include pastoring a Holistic Missional Christian Community in Minneapolis - (www.SolomonsPorch.com), speaking and writing (www.DougPagitt.com) and owner of JoPa Productions (JoPaProductions.com)and host of Doug Pagitt Radio (www.DougPagittRadio.com).

He is seeking to find creative, entrepreneurial, generative ways to join in the hopes, dreams and desires God has for the world.

Doug is married to Shelley and the father of 2 young adults and two teenagers.

Doug has a BA in Anthropology and a Masters of Theology from Bethel Seminary.

Doug is the author of A Christianity Worth Believing (Jossey-Bass 2008),
Church Re-Imagined (Zondervan 2004),
Preaching Re-Imagined (Zondervan 2005), and
BodyPrayer (Waterbrook 2005).
He is the co-editor of An Emergent Manifesto of Hope (Baker Books 2007).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Needs to be a part of every preaching class, September 20, 2005

By 

Bob Hyatt (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Preaching Re-Imagined: The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith (Hardcover)

This is a book that those who currently teach preaching and those who practice the art of preaching would do well not to miss.

Doug Pagitt, aside from being an excellent communicator, is also a top notch, challenging thinker. In Preaching Re-Imagined he lays out the problem (preaching as we know it is broken- the same people hear the same messages year after year and yet continue to struggle with the same problems) and some of the standard reasons why people imagine preaching is ineffective (the problem is the people, the method, the preacher, the content, etc).
Those aren't the problem, Pagitt says. Rather, the issue is "speaching", that is, defining preaching down to simply a monologue. And a steady diet of monologue is detrimental to the soul of the community- when all the communication runs in one direction, there are unintended consequences both to the speaker and the hearers. It may be fine in the short term, but long term this tends to stunt the growth of all involved.

Doug advocates something he calls progressional dialogue- becoming communities who listen to the preachers among us, not only the preacher standing in front of us.

This is a seriously great book that will challenge anyone who fills the role of "preacher" for his or her community to consider the impact their method may have on the hearers, and to consider from the ground-up the "hows", "whys" and "whats" of preaching.

Check this book out- even if you are at a size as a church where dialogue has become impossible on Sundays, there's much here to glean. This book serves as a wake up call for pastors to once again begin involving the people in the work of teaching one another.

A quote:
"As pastor I want to be part of a community where the workings of God are imbedded in all, where the roles of teaching and learning aren't mine alone, but instead are intrinsic to who we are as a people."

Amen.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Light Disappointment, September 15, 2008

By 

J. Miller (LA, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Preaching Re-Imagined: The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith (Hardcover)

Pagitt has taken a stand against oratory in general. For a book on preaching, it is guaranteed to be lost in the history of the discipline, buried under better works.

Pagitt's contention is that oratory, to which he gives the inane and grammatically painful term, "speaching," exalts an individual to an undeserved position of authority which doesn't honor the community's role in discerning truth. Instead, he recommends the equally painful "dialogical progression" (as though any dialogues don't have an intended progress), which boils down to nothing more than talking with his audience. What Pagitt lacks, and what I'll go to pains to detail, is 1) any biblical foundation, 2) any accurate understandings of history, and 3) any proof that his own methods are fruitful.

Pagitt makes wild claims about dialoging with the audience to be a biblical norm, even stating that speeches in the Bible are a rarity. This is, in a word, nonsense. In nearly every book of the Bible someone makes a speech, and in every case, the Bible exalts their speaking with authority FOR the community, and not merely with the community. Pagitt offers no proof that his assertions about what the Bible says and does are accurate.

Secondly, Pagitt makes the completely unfounded and uncited claim that "speaching," or oratory in general, are a product of the Enlightenment. Anyone with a college education will find this intellectually insulting. From the ancient greco-roman orators, whose methods influenced the biblical writings, history and timelessly and repeatedly proven the effectiveness of oratory (that is, of a speaker in authority moving an audience to an intended purpose).

Thirdly, Solomon's Porch, his popularized church, has proven to have an actually minimal effect in its immediate community. While their event invitation list claims hundreds, actual attendance is small. His "radical" move to church without microphones doesn't forward the priesthood of all believers, it only forwards the cause of having a minimal number of priests in your church. Pagitt speaches widely at conferences in exactly the form he decries, despite the fact that he has no proven track record of his own effectiveness.

All that to say, this book is a waste of time. It is founded on nonsense and it will be lost in history. Perhaps the most telling indicator is that Pagitt dismisses the expository methods of Martin Lloyd-Jones, and tells readers who like him simply to return Pagitt's book to the store. It kind of gives you a sense of how much Pagitt is really interested in dialogue.

James W. Miller is the author of God Scent: A Devotional.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars exaggerated and filler full, January 10, 2008

By 

C Eric (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Preaching Re-Imagined: The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith (Hardcover)

Doug Pagitt is convinced that preaching would be more faithful to Biblical faith formation and the nurturing of healthy communities if it were more dialogical and less monologue (I agree). Encourage people to respond to statements by the preacher and to each other, and you communicate worth of their insight and enrich the preaching event.

There you go, you don't need to read the book now, everything else is redundancy or gross exaggerations of the downside of not taking his approach. It's as if he's never heard a well crafted sermon from a pastor who knows and loves his/her congregation, and as if preaching is the only event in the life of a congregation. He says at one point "Speaching also strips away any chance for people in the congregation to feel known and understood by their pastor." Oh come on. There is also no acknowledgment of the good purpose of having someone who is trained and dedicated to studying the Word and bringing teaching to the congregation. Not everyone gets a lot out of their own reading of the scripture, not everyone has time to really dig into the history and meaning of the context or the original language. That's something preachers give to their congregations.