Preaching Hope in an Anxious World

I have one last workshop to talk about from Baby Pastor School. The last workshop I went to was Preaching Hope in an Anxious World. This workshop was probably the most useful but also the most dangerous.

The presenter was Chuck (sorry I don't have his last name) who is a retired pastor from Upstate New York. Chuck apparently is quite a preacher and a little crazy in his preaching style. While giving very helpful information like a list of "Ten Holy Habits toward more effective preaching" and some breakdowns of where he sees hope in the text for this Lenten season, he also put great thoughts in my mind about how to create lasting images for people when preaching. According to Chuck, he has never preached about Zacchaeus except from atop a ladder. He has also thrown seed packets at people when preaching on the parable of the seeds, among other things.

Some of these ideas seem crazy but to me they also seem freeing. I don't preach from the pulpit. Some of the best sermons I have every heard may not have been the ones I remember, but I remember the ones that had an image that was shown either with great verbal imagery or through props. In many ways I would rather have someone remember a sermon that was mediocre then forget a really good sermon.

So will I start preaching on ladders or throwing seed packets? I don't know yet but I do feel like it is a possibility. Let's see what everyone's response is to that.