Getting to Know Your Risen Savior

If what you are wanting is a Savior who mostly stays out of your way, a Lord who makes no demands on your time, energy, or priorities, or a Teacher whose ideas you are free to pick through and select what parts you like best, then perhaps the Roman government did us all a favor. A dead Jesus is a much easier Jesus to deal with.

Jesus' journey to the cross, beginning with his birth and continuing to his death is largely shaped by a downward movement. In Philippians 2, Paul shares a hymn about the life of Jesus:

Though he was in the form of God, (he) did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He released his claims to divine glory. He reduced himself to servanthood. He poured out whatever was left in his death on a cross; mocked and humiliated. His execution left him so thoroughly devalued by the world that the apostles wouldn't think of going to see him early on that Sunday morning, instead allowing a few servant-hearted ladies to rise up early and go to do the dirty work of preparing his body. (I saw some irony in the story this very morning, knowing that several servant-minded women came to our church much earlier than anyone else to do the dirty work of preparing for today's activities. If the first resurrection appearance tells us anything, it's that God has a special place in his heart for servant-minded women like these.) Since Jesus hadn't died well in their minds, at least they could give him a decent burial.

When Jesus is dead, we can do with him what we want. His commands can be reduced to suggestions. His demands can be reduced to options. Much like any other historical person or artifact, we can poke, prod, and determine value, chewing up and swallowing what we like while spitting out what we don't.

Perhaps on this Sunday morning you've come here for a viewing of the body. He was, after all, an innocent person who died unjustly. Perhaps you came with a funeral in mind. Let's hear a few favorite memories, share some of his better quotes, and pay a few respects before we get back to doing with our lives whatever we please.

But if you came this morning to pay your respects to a dead Savior, I'm afraid you've just missed him. Don't be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Though you could go and see the place where they laid him, he isn't there. He's gone on ahead of you, making preparations for you, and when you get there you'll see him, just as he told you. Meanwhile, be sure to go and tell the others the good news.

Before we could even finish preparing the body, before we could even work out the details of a proper funeral, Jesus came back. Death couldn't hold onto him. It is not a dead hero whom we've come to respect this morning, it is our risen King who is now reigning at the right hand of God.

This is a new type of Jesus we are experiencing, and we would all benefit from getting to know our risen Savior. Jesus may have emptied himself to the point of death on a cross, but because of his obedience, he snatched victory out of the hands of death and is now glorified again in the presence of God. That Christian hymn that Paul quoted speaks of his humiliation, but it also speaks of Jesus' restoration to glory:

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Revelation that God gave to John contains several striking images of our risen Lord; all of which are worthy of reflection, but I wish to reflect on the vision found in Revelation 1. Jesus will go on to give specific messages to specific churches, but he begins with a few words that should mean something to all Christians in every church.

Allow yourself to get caught up in John's vision of this mysterious Savior we follow:

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

In fact, before he even speaks, the mere appearance of Jesus in this setting tells us something about him. There is a lot of symbolism going on here, just as there is in much of Revelation. We have the lampstands with their candles burning, representing churches, all of which should keep our lights burning to shine hope on our community.

But John also references that Jesus had seven stars in his right hand. The stars, we are told, represent the angels; God's messengers to the different churches. The word "angel' in the original languages also means "messenger," and this is significant, because much of the ancient world believed the stars contained messages. The stars, they believed, contained a map of human history and determined its course. So they read their horoscopes and stared into the sky with great diligence, desiring insight into how to navigate the confusing waters of life. The stars would often be symbolized by the seven most prominent heavenly bodies, the ones that could be seen with unaided human eyes: the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Much in the way we Americans display "In God We Trust" on our currency--whether we mean it or not--ancient coins would sometimes indicate what they believed determined the course of history. 

Here in our encounter with Jesus, we find a Lord who holds the seven stars in his hand. Whether you trust in the stars, the stock market, or your favorite cable news network, the clear message here is that whatever it is you believe drives the course of human history, it is subservient to the will of Jesus Christ. The Lord of Lords is the one who determines the course of human history, and holds it within his hand.  

In the presence of one as powerful as Jesus is presented here in John's vision, what would you do? Fight or flight only works when you can overpower or outrun someone, and to try either would be obviously futile. So instead, John falls down as if he were dead. Jesus places his right hand on John's shoulder, and speaks to him. I believe Jesus' introductory words here are meaningful to all Christians in every generation.

Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

FEAR NOT

Christians need not waste our time with some of the world's hypothetical questions. If you knew you couldn't possibly get hurt, what would you do? If you knew you couldn't possibly fail, what would you try? The one who leads us has conquered death. There exists no adversary whom he has not already bested. The only questions we should be wrestling with are: What does Christ call me to do next? and What could possibly be holding me back from trying? It is not only the difficult things that we can do with Christ's help, it is often the things we believed were impossible. 

Paul reminds us in Romans 8:1-2:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 

We are to be people characterized by hope and courage, because in Christ, there is nothing left to fear. 

I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST

Sometimes when we want to refer to the entirety of something, we refer to the beginning and the end. We've studied everything, we say, from A to Z. We've been everywhere from coast to coast. We've looked it over from top to bottom. Jesus will later say he is the Alpha and the Omega. He is our beginning, he is our end, and he is our everything in between. 

In a similar vein, John introduces Jesus to us in his Gospel in the following way:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

If what we desire is a meaningful life, then we should follow the one who is before us. We should acknowledge the one who remains after us. We should honor the one who knows us better than we know ourselves. In Jesus we find life as it is meant to be lived. His life is our light. By looking to him, we can see enough to take the next step on a path that leads us where we want to go. Getting to the end takes patience, but taking one simple step with true light is better any day than taking many stumbling steps into uncertain darkness.

I DIED, AND BEHOLD I AM ALIVE FOREVERMORE 

All elements of this are important. It is significant that Jesus actually died, because it means that he experienced the very worst of what humanity could do to him. We could use our greatest weapons of deepest treachery, and after we had done our worst, he overcame and conquered them all. 

Jesus says clearly that he had died, but now he is alive, and there remains nothing that can kill him again. Had Jesus merely died, we would have no reason to be here. There are many great teachers who have lived and died, and none of them warrants a weekly period of remembrance, or the constant commemoration of their life. We are free to disagree with and dispense of dead teachers. If Jesus were just another dead teacher, Paul believes this would create a domino effect of bad implications in the life of the church, which he describes in I Corinthians 15:

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

It is bad enough to be mistaken. But if Jesus isn't risen, we are liars about God. Our faith is a waste, and we are pitiable more than anyone else in the world. But because Jesus is risen, we can read Paul's ideas in reverse.

"Behold! I am alive forevermore," Jesus says. And so we know that because Jesus is raised, our teaching is valuable, and so is our faith. We are God's true representatives because we are telling the truth about Jesus' power over death, through which he redeemed us from our sins. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ are now reigning with Christ. Because of he hope we experience in Christ, we are of all people most to be envied, for we've found a fountain of life that can nourish the soul of every person who drinks from it.

I HAVE THE KEYS OF DEATH AND HADES

The image we should have in our head of Jesus as he broke the chains of death is not that of a hero making a narrow escape of a dangerous situation. Jesus' actions more resemble an explosion of dynamite, crumbling the walls and breaking through the gates of death, who had absolutely no chance of holding the King of Kings. Jesus has taken over, and he is the one who now holds the keys.

I am reminded of a story about a factory. It was a business with a long history, and one gentleman in particular who had worked there for many years. As it grew in complexity, he understood better than anyone else how it all functioned, and the different components worked together. As the years went by and the factory came under new management, the younger management wanted to cut costs, and saw little use in paying an older person so much, when they could hire younger guys for a lower cost and longer hours. So they unceremoniously let the older gentleman go. After a few weeks, something went wrong. Production came to a halt. The young hotshots tried what they knew, but to no avail. It became clear that the only solution short of tearing down and rebuilding the whole factory was to give a call to the gentleman who had been released. A humble phone call was made, and he agreed to come for an hour or so to have a look, understanding he would bill the company as a consultant. After only a few minutes with the machines, he went to one in particular, took out a piece of chalk from his pocked, and marked one section of the machinery with a giant "X". "Here's the problem," he said. "Remove the cover, replace these parts, and it will all work fine." They did what he said, and everything happened as he said it would. The people were pleased to be back in operation. A few days later they received a bill from the gentleman, with the cost being $10,000. The bookkeeper was indignant. How could he charge that much money for only a few minutes' work? So they demanded an itemized list, explaining the cost. The man sent them a second bill, this time itemized:

1 piece of chalk: $1
Knowing where to draw the X with the chalk: $9,999

It's good to be the one who holds the keys. And if you aren't the one who holds the keys, you want to be on good terms with the one who does.

We can disregard him or devalue him if we want, but Jesus is the one who holds the keys to the afterlife. There is no Plan B; no option that allows us to bypass him if we want to have entrance to the presence of God. Jesus wants us not to be afraid, because even though he died, he now lives forevermore, and if we clothe ourselves in him, there is nothing strong enough to take us from the grip of his grace. He shows us the road to where we want to go, and he holds the keys to the kingdom. We can't afford to neglect him, and can find comfort in knowing he hasn't neglected us.

Note: This sermon was preached on April 16, 2017 at the Kings Crossing Church of Christ, Corpus Christi, Texas. 

Some Developments In My Thinking

I've felt like my blog has been a bit neglected in the last couple of months. I guess the appearance is that presently, I have nothing to say, though I'm sure you must all think I have a limitless supply of pictures of my cat. :-)

My problem has been quite the opposite. I can't seem to find time to make posts long enough to cover what's on my mind. I'm seriously contemplating some different series of posts around a few subjects of interest, but it will have to wait until I have time to do it. I'm getting ready for the summer, which means VBS, Camp, lining up Bible class teachers, and a calendar full of youth activities.

In the last few months, I've been encountering some concepts that have really impacted me; particularly in things pertaining to preaching and teaching. I've had a weekly class with Dr. David Fleer at Lipscomb, and it's definitely been one of the most meaningful of my entire grad school experience. Some of what I've been thinking about are ideas that Dr. Fleer has presented in class, though most of my thinking has been under construction for a long time before now.

I've been in a cocoon for a while, and I think it's time for me to break out, and put some of my ideas in writing to see if they can fly. This will be a long post, but I would be interested in hearing your reactions to some of this stuff.

Here are some things that have been on my mind:

1. Effective Communication - What is the best way to teach and speak in order to not just say what we have to say, but be heard in ways that inspire our audience to conviction and action?

1A. Rhetoric. I've been consuming books on Rhetoric; the art of persuasion. I've been studying the different techniques of arranging words, and building phrases for the sake of making an impact in what I say. I consider these things as tools in a speaker's tool chest. In fact, I've already had some good success in using them in a couple of sermons. A few weeks ago, near a climactic point of my sermon, I made a point, using a rhetorical device to build one phrase upon another, and I got a resounding "Amen" response from several people. This stuff works. I'm 100% convinced that in school, our children would be much better served to have classes in Rhetoric than in Calculus.

What concerns me about becoming too consumed with rhetorical studies is that Rhetoric has no soul. It is like power or money. It's not inherently good or bad; it's all in how you use it. There is the ever present temptation to manipulate listeners by crafting arguments around desired outcomes. I do believe in right and wrong, and I think it is vital that students of rhetoric ensure that their rhetoric remains in service to the truth, and not in service primarily to their own agenda.

I've been wanting to start a series of posts on rhetoric, because it has helped me so much in both speaking and in analyzing what others say to me. Mastering rhetoric is like becoming a Jedi. You can definitely do the mind tricks, and if the rhetorical "force" is strong with you, you become much less susceptible to the linguistic tricks that others will try on you to persuade you. I'm convinced our current president got into office based on his rhetorical skills, more than on any other credential. We're still learning who this guy is, but he sure knows how to captivate an audience.

1B. Indirect Communication. I've become infatuated yet again with Fred Craddock's work. If you've never heard or read any of Fred Craddock's sermons, there's simply no one else like him. I've been reading up on his techniques for sermon preparation, and have recently finished his book Overhearing The Gospel. This book explains a lot of where he comes from.

When we utilize the I-Thou method in our communication, we tend to isolate our listeners. If you get up and speak at people, saying, "You..., you..., you...," then your listeners might be putting up their defenses against what you'll try to convict them to do.

But there's something about listening in on other people's conversations that helps us keep our defenses down. Craddock says the most effective way to communicate is not with rhetoric directed at people, but by speaking to them indirectly. Saying what you want them to hear, as if to another person, and letting them overhear your points. He argues that in order for this to happen effectively, there has to be both distance and participation.

Imagine walking past a cemetary, frustrated about your home life or your spouse. You overhear two people talking about a person who is buried there, and they speak about what a great father he was, how much they'll miss him, and how in spite of his short comings, they wouldn't trade him for anything. They speak of the kind things that they never said, but they wish so much that they would have said. One speaks with deep regret about a period of time when they had not even been on speaking terms, and of what a terrible loss that had been. You might be moved to tears, thinking, "I should be more grateful. I'm so lucky to have my family. I shouldn't take my own for granted, and I should get over myself and appreciate what I've got."

If this were to happen, you would have distance, as you were not part of the conversation. You would also have participation, because as a listener, you would be bringing your own emotions and thoughts to the experience. Doesn't our audience always do this? Had you not heard their story, and had the two people turned to you directly and said, "You should be ashamed! You should appreciate your wife! You shouldn't gripe so much!" you might have gotten defensive, or ran away.

Craddock believes we should try to recreate those kinds of experiences in sermons where we impact people by letting them listen in on our conversations with and about the Gospel. We let them explore the text with us, talking about our discoveries and emotions along the way. We try to speak in the first and third person perspectives, while minimizing the use of the audience-directed, second person "you" statements.

This approach is very different than what we're used to in most churches of Christ, but I'm experimenting with it. My goal is to be the most effective communicator I'm capable of becoming, and hopefully this will help me toward that end.

1C. Providing No Rabbits To Chase. In trying to develop a more narrative/indirect homiletical technique, it's easy to get too carried away with the stories sometimes. Fleer has given some good advice about how to use stories and illustrations; namely to trim them down well. The metaphor he used was that of the dog racing tracks, where they send those little rabbit things flying around the circle, which the dogs chase.

He said we have to be careful that our illustrations don't send the people's minds flying away from our topic. He said:

If you're going to share a bit of wisdom from a statement your wife made to you about a subject, you might set up the whole scenario: "Two weeks ago, my wife and I saw that new Batman movie together, then we had a nice dinner at Olive Garden. We got home, and while she was in the bath tub, we were talking about the idea of Mercy, and she said something really profound..."

You just sent half a dozen rabbits running off that people will be tempted to chase. Some will think about Batman. Some will think about Heath Ledger's Joker portrayal. Some will think about Adam West. Some will think about bread sticks at the Olive Garden. Some might be thinking about your wife in the bathtub. But if any of those are the case, it will be all your fault for sending out those rabbits!

All that is really needed here is to say, "I was talking with my wife the other night about the idea of Mercy, and she said something really profound..."

2. Contemplative Prayer. I've read a couple of books recently that have been helping my prayer life a lot. One is by Mark Thibodeaux called The Armchair Mystic. It's a book specifically about how to do contemplative prayer. The other is called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero. Scazzero does a terrific job about presenting the Christian life in very holistic terms, involving every aspect of the person. He used two balloons as an example of how we often balance our lives between activity and contemplation. The balloons were tied to opposite ends of a single string, which had an anchor at the bottom. Most Christians have the activity balloon full to the point of bursting, while letting the contemplative side be almost completely out of air, getting tugged around by the activity side. I saw that illustration and said, "That is me."

I've been working a lot on personal spiritual growth over the last several months, and finally feel I am making some progress in this regard. I've been strongly convicted of the importance of not only learning how to talk to God--or talk at God--in prayer, but that prayer's purpose is beyond just saying things or asking for things; it's about being with God. I'm working on this.

3. Postliberalism. I've been trying this on for size, and there are aspects of it that fit me well, while other aspects seem to leave me feeling uncovered. This is not a political stance or a doctrinal stance as much as it is a world view issue for me. Liberalism is what gave rise to the modern, and now postmodern, eras of our history. Liberalism is what got people so hooked on Science and existentialism. Liberalism has produced our mentality that everything is relative, and that nothing exists unless it can be measured, broken down, and studied in a test tube. It is western culture's dominant epistemology.

There are many Christian groups and companies out there who spend a great deal of time and energy on apologetics. I used to love apologetics, but for a while now, I have come away from apologetic works feeling empty, like the authors are somehow missing the point, though I couldn't express exactly what I felt was lacking.

Postliberalism has helped me clarify what it is that's been bothering me. Both the atheists and the theists who are having these great debates about God's existence, Creation, dinosaurs, etc., are really two sides of the same coin. Both typically share a world view that is dominated by the understanding that Science rules over all, and that in order for anything to be valid or valuable, it must be within the realm of scientific possibilities, with a provable scientific explanation.

Even those arguing for Christ are accepting the presuppositions that the Bible must also bow down to scientific theory, and they spend much ink and paper trying to show how what appears unscientific in the Bible actually is scientific. But I often find myself asking, "What difference does it make?" If Creation happened in six 24-hour days, or if it was in six vast time periods, or of God spoke it into existence instantaneously, and inspired Moses to describe it in six movements so that we can understand it better, what critical difference does that make for me and the people I'm teaching every week? We can't hop on a time machine to learn what happened, so we either accept it or we don't.

Let me not overstate my case here. I believe with all my heart that Scripture is Truth, and is inspired by God, and that it is exactly what God wants me to know. It teaches me how to live, and it teaches me how to know and understand God. My critique is not that we should abandon scientific thought, or that this stuff doesn't matter. My argument, though, is that I do not hold a world view that Science reigns over and above all things, or that I must submit all that I think or believe to Science for it's stamp of approval.

I believe that such an approach holds too low a view of Scripture. I'm increasingly believing Karl Barth's reasoning that Christ is a Lion. As he put it, when you're out in the jungle with a lion, and another beast comes to attack the lion, do you defend the lion? The lion is king of the jungle. Step back, and let the lion defend himself. By the time of my baptism, I accepted the belief that Scripture is God's Word, and I don't have to reprove that to myself every time I come to worship. From time to time, I get it back out again, and wrestle with it, but I'm still satisfied with my original conclusion. Sometimes I think our efforts at apologetics are a lot more effective in preaching to the choir than they are in convincing the opposition.

After all, why do you read Scripture? How often do you have someone present you with a Bible and say, "(insert your name), I have been on a quest for the most Scientific book ever written. I have read through this book, looking for new things to learn about Science that are presented in the most Scientific ways possible. This book is superb Science. This book is...the Bible."

Of course not. We continue to read Scripture because it moves us. We can read it 100 times, and still find new ways to understand it. As Barbara Brown Taylor says, Scripture seems to interpret us faster than we are able to interpret it. Its words seem distant and lofty, yet they cut me to my core, they give me hope, they inspire me, and they challenge me. Scripture contains many things which are scientifically provable, but that isn't why I read the Bible. The Bible is different--and more valuable--than that. It can speak of morality, mercy, and forgivness; things about which Science has nothing to offer.

Regarding the various studies of the world, I say we use God's advice to the Israelites at the time of the Exodus and we "plunder the Egyptians." Let us take the best of what Science, Technology, Economics, Rhetoric, Literature, Mathematics, Social Sciences, etc., can offer, and use these things in the service of God. But let us not harness and restrain Scripture so that it fits the fashions of the day.

Too often, our preaching has involved taking the luscious fruit of Scripture, then boiling it down until there's a little stain of meaning at the bottom of the pot, then we try to find the way to make it "apply to our lives today." I'm becoming convinced that rather than interpreting Scripture in light of our own lives, to fit our ways of thinking, instead, we should bring our lives to Scripture, and let it interpret us. We should submit to it entirely, and trust it to lead us in the paths of righteousness. It isn't enough to preach my own ideas with a couple of texts to prove my point. I should treat each Scripture with enormous respect, and with a sense of awe and discovery which demand me to ask, "If this verse is really true, what does it mean I will have to be doing differently in my life, regardless of the immediate consequences?"

Such a worldview can be dangerous to your health and safety, but I'm increasingly convinced that this is the view God desires for his Church. We must let Christ reign over all aspects of our lives, trusting the Shepherd to lead us; accepting that we don't always know what's "best" or "relevant."

Postliberalism, often referred to as Narrative Theology, argues something like what I'm arguing here. It is focussed on the story of God, and in becoming part of that story. I love the idea of letting Scripture be the authority of my world, over and above all other areas of study. I'm confident that the leaders in this type of thinking would say I haven't defined it correctly here. I'm really not trying to. I'm simply saying that these are some tenets which I've gained from this philosophy, which I believe have some deep and meaningful potential to them.

The parts of it I like less have to do with the areas of truth and relativism. Even though I've grown tired of many of the same old arguments, the Christian faith is grounded in space and time. It is based on realities that happened to real people in real places. Postliberalism is wonderful in that it rejects the Liberal assumptions about the nature of reality, but it often does a poor job of taking stances on facts.

Paul said that if Christ wasn't really resurrected, then our faith is in vain, the Church should not exist, and every Sunday morning I am loosing a lot of valuable sleep time. More than that, we may well be enemies of God who teach lies about him. Postliberalism is more interested in the story of Scripture and what it has to say for us, and it really doesn't even seem to want to join in on the discussion about "what actually happened," nor is it quick to take defined stances on doctrines.

It makes a difference whether we're reading true stories of real people versus reading fairy tales to inspire benevolent actions.

In this particular aspect, though it is cliche, the "slippery slope" argument is relevant. If we return to the Genesis, 6-day creation example, if it's okay to discount the historicity of the creation, then why not also Jonah? If Jonah, why not Christ's miracles? If the miracles, why not the resurrection? They are all connected, and it's very dangerous to be too quick to discount any part of it.

I'm uncomfortable enough with some of the shortcomings that I cannot entirely pitch my tent among the postliberals, though there is much about what they are doing that resonates with me.

So to whomever is reading this, these are some things that have been almost constantly on my mind for the last few months. I hope to uphold the complete Lordship of Christ in my life and my ministry, and I wonder if these concepts will help me or hinder me?

What say you?

Speaking Effectively: Visuals

I don't know exactly where I'm going to go with this, but I have in mind to make a few posts around the idea of teaching and preaching effectively. Because preaching is where I'm most oriented, this will undoubtedly take a homiletical slant, but I want to share some ideas about what has worked well for me, and I hope hoping to get some input from you about what has worked for you.

I titled my blog "Perpetual Timothy", because I'm thoroughly convinced of my own need to continue to grow and mature. I didn't decide to become a minister because I had achieved perfection. It was a step of faith that God could use someone as flawed as I am, and it's been a true blessing and a privilege. I can't imagine myself doing anything else. But I want to give God my best, and perhaps as I reflect on some of these things, you can help me make my best a little better.

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A challenge about anyone who is a communicator is that even though we might learn and think a certain way, we have to teach people who learn and think in a variety of ways. I think the addition of Powerpoint in many churches (if it's used well) has been a great step in evolving preaching to a format that has more appeal to visual and even hands-on learners.

The last time I preached, I had a nice case of serendipity. I was trying to make a point about the people in the Bible; that they are real people with real struggles, real flaws, and real solutions. Their flaws should be a source of encouragement for us, because God's ability to use us depends more on our willingness than on our merited righteousness. Often, though, we treat them as if they are mere cartoon characters. In fact, don't we often refer to people in the Bible as "characters"?

I decided to make this point by showing a series of familiar cartoon characters on the screen (Disney, comic characters, Hanna-Barbara, etc.), then by showing some cartoon renditions of biblical characters, and having the people "name the character" in their head. (Though you really have no idea what Moses looked like, how do you know that cartoon is him?) I was thankful that most people seemed to get my point, but what shocked me was how well the children responded to this. They were positively on the edge of their seats, and I could hear their little voices telling all the character names to their parents as I would flip through them. It was energizing. I can't use the same approach all the time, but it's got me thinking about how I can appeal to more people through my visuals.

My friend Dale Jenkins has made some good points to me about how important it is to use Powerpoint as a visual form of communication more than a textual form. I know he isn't the first to make this observation, but it's a good one. I've sat through sermons before where the preacher could have just as easily stopped talking, because the entire sermon was written out in the slides.

Though if I'm making a major point, I prefer to spell it out, and I generally will put scriptures on the screen, I've tried to adapt the approach that when I'm using illustrations--especially stories--I have as few words on the screen as possible. I choose pictures that I display sequentially as I tell the story. So far, it has seemed to work much better than if I list out segments of the story in text form. I'm not sure how far I can go with experimentation in this sort of thing, but I've continued to think about how to use more pictures and less words in my slides.

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If you make presentations, especially ones intended to be persuasive, what advice can you offer about using visuals? What is your approach for incorporating images?

If you are regularly in the pew or the audience, what visuals have stuck in your mind? If you could tell your preacher (especially if it's me) some things to do to improve his sermons from a visual standpoint, what would you suggest?