Thursday, November 04, 2004
Preaching
Tension in unity.
That was the theme in my message today as we celebrated Richard Hooker. The sermon went fairly well I thought. I had one pang of nervousness during the reading of the Gospel, but I told that to go away and it did, so that was all good. Attempting to put into practice some of the lessons of my preaching class, I took my message on an arc from the global to the personal. I think it worked out ok for a 5 minute sermonette. Some of the feedback that I got back from my compatriots I want to record here so I remember to ask my preaching professor about it and see how I can improve. Overall they thought it was very good and they liked it, but they offered the following feedback:
I think that some of this is simply who I am and my style, but some of it can definitely be worked on and so I am thankful for their feedback. After the long day we've just had and the huge dinner and apple pie we just ate, I'm going to go collapse into bed. I haven't had proper mourning time for our country yet either, so I may do a little of that too. Goodnight.
-R
That was the theme in my message today as we celebrated Richard Hooker. The sermon went fairly well I thought. I had one pang of nervousness during the reading of the Gospel, but I told that to go away and it did, so that was all good. Attempting to put into practice some of the lessons of my preaching class, I took my message on an arc from the global to the personal. I think it worked out ok for a 5 minute sermonette. Some of the feedback that I got back from my compatriots I want to record here so I remember to ask my preaching professor about it and see how I can improve. Overall they thought it was very good and they liked it, but they offered the following feedback:
- Used no-no words and phrases like "we should", "we must", "we ought" on four separate occasions
- Intensity of the sermon was high
- It was "polished and very eloquent" and felt to them like it was memorized [I wrote the thing about 30 minutes before I gave it and so that was not the case, but it doesn't eliminate the feeling] This produced a distancing effect in them.
- Too many big words - "You used one word at the end, it started with a "p", and I just wanted to laugh" [I have no idea what word that might have been]
- When I was gripping my prayer book holding my notes, it felt to them like I was restricting my natural hand movements and closed me off
I think that some of this is simply who I am and my style, but some of it can definitely be worked on and so I am thankful for their feedback. After the long day we've just had and the huge dinner and apple pie we just ate, I'm going to go collapse into bed. I haven't had proper mourning time for our country yet either, so I may do a little of that too. Goodnight.
-R
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