Twelve years ago during my first two weeks of Sabbatical at Ring Lake Ranch, I enjoyed a seminar on creative writing as a means of spiritual discipline. At the end of the two weeks someone took our handwritten essays, poems and meditations, transcribed them and prepared a lovely booklet. I just found mine as I was unpacking books in my new home. Being a pastor requires both oral and written communication skills and they are not the same.
The art of the spoken word in preaching is immediate. It is a community engagement with scripture. A manuscript, notes, or a sermon outline are never the finished sermon. They are, to use a term from Greek pronunciation, merely the antepenultimate version. The word as preached is the penultimate word (and is often radically altered from words typed or scribbled on a page). The sermon is the sum of that which the congregation hears and digests. The final version is formed between the ear and the heart. It cannot be recorded or duplicated in any way. Being at a live concert and hearing a cd of a live concert are two very different experiences, for example.
Now that is not to say that everyone who is there has an equally authentic experience. Only those who let the spirit move within them can hear the word. As Jesus says, those who have ears, let them hear. Some will not hear and leave graceless. Some hear much more than the preacher preaches! The spirit brings messages particular to some and there is a day dreaming in worship that is inspired.
Oral communication is immediate and direct. The physical body guided by the heart, mind and spirit of the speaker (or singer or liturgist) moves the air. The air vibrations enter the ear of the hearer which by physical means carries meaning to the mind and soul of the hearer.
Writing is very different. The black on white of the printed page or screen has to have life breathed into it by the reader. In the ancient world all reading was oral because the reader had to breathe life into the dead page. The life of the written word is a longer life and a more adventurous life, perhaps, than that of the spoken word. The reader interprets a writing according to his or her own experience, wisdom, understanding, world view and needs. The written word leaves the writer and has its own independent life. (Any one of us who has sent out an ill-considered email meant humourously knows what disasters can befall when such a message is read at a distance with no accompanying smile or eye twinkle or context.)
At any rate, this is a place for the written word. Over the next few days/weeks, depending on what interruptions the world may bring, I will be sharing the essays I wrote at Ring Lake Ranch a dozen years ago. I hope they may, with the aid of the Spirit, spark your encounter with the God who is as near as your borrowed breath.
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Pastor Fuller's Blog 
Reading and Hearing
Posted in Commentary, observations, tagged preacher, preaching and writing, Ring Lake Ranch, sermons, The Word of God on August 16, 2011|
Twelve years ago during my first two weeks of Sabbatical at Ring Lake Ranch, I enjoyed a seminar on creative writing as a means of spiritual discipline. At the end of the two weeks someone took our handwritten essays, poems and meditations, transcribed them and prepared a lovely booklet. I just found mine as I was unpacking books in my new home. Being a pastor requires both oral and written communication skills and they are not the same.
The art of the spoken word in preaching is immediate. It is a community engagement with scripture. A manuscript, notes, or a sermon outline are never the finished sermon. They are, to use a term from Greek pronunciation, merely the antepenultimate version. The word as preached is the penultimate word (and is often radically altered from words typed or scribbled on a page). The sermon is the sum of that which the congregation hears and digests. The final version is formed between the ear and the heart. It cannot be recorded or duplicated in any way. Being at a live concert and hearing a cd of a live concert are two very different experiences, for example.
Now that is not to say that everyone who is there has an equally authentic experience. Only those who let the spirit move within them can hear the word. As Jesus says, those who have ears, let them hear. Some will not hear and leave graceless. Some hear much more than the preacher preaches! The spirit brings messages particular to some and there is a day dreaming in worship that is inspired.
Oral communication is immediate and direct. The physical body guided by the heart, mind and spirit of the speaker (or singer or liturgist) moves the air. The air vibrations enter the ear of the hearer which by physical means carries meaning to the mind and soul of the hearer.
Writing is very different. The black on white of the printed page or screen has to have life breathed into it by the reader. In the ancient world all reading was oral because the reader had to breathe life into the dead page. The life of the written word is a longer life and a more adventurous life, perhaps, than that of the spoken word. The reader interprets a writing according to his or her own experience, wisdom, understanding, world view and needs. The written word leaves the writer and has its own independent life. (Any one of us who has sent out an ill-considered email meant humourously knows what disasters can befall when such a message is read at a distance with no accompanying smile or eye twinkle or context.)
At any rate, this is a place for the written word. Over the next few days/weeks, depending on what interruptions the world may bring, I will be sharing the essays I wrote at Ring Lake Ranch a dozen years ago. I hope they may, with the aid of the Spirit, spark your encounter with the God who is as near as your borrowed breath.
Read Full Post »