Preaching:
What would be some examples of things you’ve done visually in your own worship?
Nelson:
We stole this idea from a sister church but it was very effective for us. We
did a whole series on “Who’s Almighty?” and the subtitle was, “It’s Not Bruce.”
And we did a whole 5, 6 week series off the movie Bruce Almighty and
we used some of the clips. And then we had this great big six-foot inflated
globe hanging down from the ceiling, and it said, “Who’s Almighty?” So for six
weeks people come in and there’s this huge globe over the stage and then we
show video clips from that, so it’s kind of a thematic feel. And then in their
outline they had artwork that had been redone to make it kind of look like the
movie theme. So that would be a thematic approach.
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This Good Friday,
for example, they will come in and they will receive two Popsicle sticks. One
that has written on it a label that will say “Holiness and Justice” and then
another one that will say “Love and Grace” and we’re going to talk about how
intersections are dangerous. A lot of people die in intersections. Jesus died
at the intersection of love and grace and holiness and justice. Then at the
end of service they’ll hold the two sticks as a cross and show how the cross
really was a dynamic intersection for where the two things collided. So I think
there is a visual that you put in their hands.
Preaching:
You just mentioned your message outlines, and in your book you talk about providing
written outlines that people are invited to fill out. There’s been some debate
among pastors as to whether that is an effective tool to use. Why do you think
it’s effective?
Nelson:
For some people that is a very helpful thing to keep people focused because
there is enough of a (sense of) “Oh, I want to get the answers.” There is a
curiosity affected that can create tension — that I want to fill in my blank
— and it’s enough to keep a certain percentage of people engaged just to make
sure they at least get the blanks filled in. I think the other thing is that
it gives a sense of flow or direction, because again we’re so time conscious
these days that people don’t know when we’re going to stop and start. So if
there is a flow, if there’s a sequence and they can see where we’re headed,
it says, “I see where we’re going and I can see when we’re going to be almost
done.”
I think there’s
another element there of saying that as a pastor I’ve thought through this week
and I’ve got some main concepts and I’m not just shooting from the hip. So there’s
almost a sense of value there. It also gives us an excuse to put things on the
screen, which again is another visual. I think all of those are positive reasons.