Collaborative Preaching

This weekend I've been invited to share a message at another church here in the neighborhood.  As I began thinking about sharing at this particular church, I realized how accustomed I have become to preaching in the living room of my home.  Granted, this church is not your typical "traditional" church with all kinds of rules, rituals, and formalities, but there is still a difference between preaching in your living room to family and friends and preaching from the front of a room to a crowd of people.  In order to fit this different context, I'll inevitably have to tweak my "style" a touch.  Typically when I prepare a message for our house church I leave room for questions, feedback, rebuttals, and other forms of spontaneity.  I always have a good idea of where I am headed in my message, but I allow for flexibility and improvisation.  This is a lot harder to accommodate in a typical preaching setting.  At best the congregation can respond with sounds of approval, but it is difficult to allow space for anything else.  It just is not practical to allow 50 or 100 or 1000 people the opportunity to respond with an insight or ask a question.  Having spent almost two years now in the house church environment, I realize how much I appreciate the conversational atmosphere of living room preaching.  I like the fact that someone can stop me in mid-sentence because something is unclear.  I like the fact that someone can offer their own way of understanding a verse, which may be different from my own.  I like the fact that everyone has the ability to voice what is on their hearts.

When I think about more "traditional" styles of preaching, I am troubled by how one-directional they are.  In most models of preaching, the preacher has an idea in his or her mind that they are trying to communicate to their listeners.  In this way of preaching, the flow of information is from the front of the room to the masses.  There is no reciprocity, no mutual edification, and very little participation.  On the contrary, the style of preaching that can take place in the living room allows for this kind of reciprocity and mutual edification.  Often times people share an insight or comment in response to the content of my message that encourages and challenges me.  Preaching becomes a two-way street then.  Instead of me preaching to them, we are, in a sense, preaching to each other.  The final outcome of the message often becomes a synthesis between what I have planned to share and what other people contribute to the conversation.  This is a wonderful experience that I am less inclined to trade for pulpit preaching these days.

The name I have come up with for this style of preaching is "collaborative preaching."  I chose this term because I think it captures the multi-directional and spontaneous dynamic of living room preaching.  My only hope is that more churches and more pastors would discover the depth of preaching in a way that allows for everyone to contribute.