A Ministry of the School of Theology and Christian Ministry—Olivet Nazarene University

Worship and Preaching

Worship and Preaching is a resource for preachers and worship leaders. In this issues veteran pastor and preacher Danny Goddard explores the creative possibilities of preaching.

Featured Article

Multi-sensory Preaching

Danny Goddard   3/01/12


It looked like a typical Sunday morning in a suburb of Oklahoma City.  People entered the foyer of First Church of the Nazarene as they did each and every week but on this Sunday morning they were welcomed by the aroma of freshly baked bread.  Coming into the sanctuary, they noticed the two side walls were lined with small ovens that were in the process of bread-baking.  A glance at the worship folder brought it all together: The order of service announced that the pastor would be preaching on “Jesus, the Bread of Life.”  The message was delivered, as always, in a most eloquent manner, then the service was closed with communion served—from the very bread that had been baking throughout worship.  According to Rick Blackwood, this method of communication is called “multi-sensory preaching” because “… it interfaces with multiple senses.  Unlike conventional preaching, which stimulates only the sense of hearing, multi-sensory communication stimulates multiple senses, i.e. the senses of hearing, seeing, touching and sometimes even smell and taste.” (Blackwood, p. 13)

0 Comments Read More
Tags: Preaching
 

Recent Articles

“Rosetta Stone, My Lawn Mower Manual, & Congregational Worship”

Jeffrey D. Crowder   1/05/12

Last Sunday our family was out of town so we visited a church.  It is a church in the same denomination as the congregation that I pastor.  It is located in the same state.  We are even part of the same district.  But, as with anything we experience for the first time, there were some things that were very different between our churches.

I noticed the size difference.  The church we visited on Sunday is probably on the verge of what we’d call a “mega church” or as a friend of mine describes it, a “Wal-Mart church:  they’re a big box”.  They offer a wide variety of opportunities and ministries and appear to do them quite well. Our church is more of a “Cheers” church:  where everybody knows your name.  We don’t offer nearly as many ministries but there is a high level of intimacy between the people who worship at our church.  We visited the big church for the first time and nobody knew it except for us.  That wouldn’t be possible in our church.

1 Comments Read More
Tags: Worship
 

Exploring Worship as Lex Orandi – Lex Credendi

Carl Leth   11/01/11

One of the most dangerous popular notions of worship is that worship is simply one of the activities we do. We identify it as one of the activities of the church. Or, we see it in pragmatic terms as a key generator of energy or outreach, shaping our practice of worship to facilitate these outcomes. In this article I want to outline an understanding of worship as central to the life and understanding of the worshipping community.

The pastoral leader declares the priority of God’s story, placing our lives and self-understanding in the context of God’s work and Kingdom. But that declaration is also a call to formation, calling the church to live as people and a community within that story. The role of the pastor-prophet is never merely informative, but is to embed God’s story in the life of the community such that it forms the life of those within the community. One of the most important means for a pastoral leader to accomplish that is through the worship of the community.

3 Comments Read More
Tags: Worship