Monday, June 18, 2012

We've Come a Long Way Baby..........Really?




I get this a lot.  A woman in the ministry is trying to break the same glass ceilings as in corporate America.  I have heard and read this term, "The Stained Glass Ceiling." Whatever the case, it's all glass and more times than not, that glass is often times difficult to break.  I always envision a big hammer that I use.  I keep hitting the glass, but I'm only making cracks here and there.  It doesn't break and my arms get tired sometimes. 

I belong to one of the most progressive African American denominations when it comes to promoting women, I am an African Methodist Episcopal minister and proud of it. However, my denomination was very late in ordaining women as elders. Would you believe that it was in the late 1960's that a woman was allowed to become an itinerant elder?  Well, it's true!  Now we are talking about ordination -vs- licensing.  We women were allowed to be "licensed", but not ORDAINED. 

Ok, now we've gotten past that and here we are today.  We've come a long way baby.......but have we really?  Since my my last ordination (elder's orders) I have been met with opposition from men and YES, women. My leadership abilities have been called into question many times. As long as I'm directing the choirs, serving food, teaching Sunday School and looking cute, they're cool.  The moment I open my mouth to make a suggestion, implement a policy or preach there's a problem.

My mother was very strict about her children learning a little something about everything.  I play Jeopardy as a hobby, I've read the Bible from front to back more than my 43 years on earth, doing research is fun to me, I have over a thousand books in my personal library and I've read them all.  I learned how to change my own oil in my car, I can change my own tires and truth be told, if I had the equipment and tools, I could probably put an engine together as well as take it apart.  My mother always envisioned her children being able to walk into a state dinner at the White House and being able to speak with whomever about whatever.  I take those skills to my secular job as a purchasing manager. I know how to watch my budget.  I know how to negotiate better pricing to save my facility money in these tough economic times.  I know how to manuever in and out of my male dominated field.  My vendors respect me and I respect them.  They don't pat me on the head and say, "Let the big boys handle it and go sit in a corner and be cute."  I have proven myself to be a force in the Purchasing world.  They are my colleagues. That glass ceiling for me has been broken......BUT......I still have that stained glass ceiling to break.

Many women preachers run into that ceiling and receive cuts, bumps and bruises.  Cut-When you go to a staunch Baptist church and the pastor of that church tells you that you can't preach from the pulpit, BUT you can preach from the floor.  Bump-An older woman in the church that the bishop has assigned you to tells you, "I don't know why the bishop sent a WOMAN because this church has only had MEN.  I hope you don't get overly emotional and (if you're single) you need a husband and you wear to much make-up and jewelry.  Man!!!  Bruise-You come with the idea of a Capital Development Program for your church, which passes, but they pick a MAN to run it, although you have more experience. OUCH!! 

It hurts, but we keeping hitting that ceiling with that perverbial hammer. Some have broken through.  The elections and consecrations of women Bishops McKenzie, Tyler-Guidry and Davis was a pioneering feat in the AME Church history, however, with twenty episcopal districts, there are only three women, that's only fifteen percent (15%).  I know that we will have more women who will become bishops, presiding elders and preachers. It's slow going, but I am encouraged.  We've come a long way baby....BUT......Have we really?  I say yes, but we still have so much further to go.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Sometimes the Preacher Needs a Preacher

Today my soul is troubled.  I have just recently (three weeks ago) gone through a situation that left me in an emotional coma.  It has been a series of good days and bad days for the past three weeks.  I function, but I feel dysfunctional.  I continue to stay busy so that I won’t have to think and I’ve developed the habit of smiling all the while crying on the inside.  Some nights I don’t sleep and I toss and turn which makes me cranky and an introvert.  Sometimes, the nights are long and those are the roughest times for me.  That third hour after midnight is often the quietest and I tend to be very introspective at that hour.  It is usually at this time that I pray my hardest and will pick up the phone to call a sister minister friend of mine.

Sometimes, the preacher needs a preacher.  I know that this preacher does.  I say this because preachers are so busy listening and counseling people and their issues that the preacher’s issues are not being addressed.  We are so busy giving the people, “What thus says the Lord” but what we really need is for the preacher to have a preacher. 

My friend has never not (I know that this is a double negative, but it’s MY BLOG) picked up the phone to pray and counsel me.  After talking with her, the air seems clearer, the night seems easier and my soul not so troubled.  I always hear a Word from God through her which helps me to put things in perspective.  I know some of you might be saying to yourselves, “I wouldn’t answer my phone at that ungodly hour.” That’s your choice, but when my sister minister friend was going through, I picked up the phone for her and gave her God’s Word and prayed.  Sometimes, the preacher needs a preacher.  We figured like this, if we can allow congregants to awaken us in the middle of the night with their issues; why can’t we do that for each other?  Exactly!  We can!  We need a Word too.

What I am trying to convey is that preachers are not immune to the problems and issues of everyday life.  Job 14:1 prophetically states, “Man (and yes woman) born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” We have relationship issues, household issues, health issues, children issues, daily walk issues, self-esteem issues and every other issue that lay people have.  Lay persons can turn to the preacher.  The preacher can turn to………Sometimes, the preacher needs a preacher.

  

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

10 Things Everyone Wants In a Sermon



What do people want to hear in a sermon? I have been to many churches and have heard many preachers.  Some have left me filled and inspired, others, well Jesus! In my second year on the BOE, my instructor was also my supervising pastor and she broke a sistah down, in a good way.  She’s the one that taught me a lot about sermon development.  She said, “You can whoop and holler all you want, but if there is nothing to feast on in your sermon, all that whooping and hollering is just a show.  You have to give the people something substantial.  You have to be prepared and you have to do the research!”  Needless to say, she failed a sermon that I had written as an assignment and she made me re-write it.  She taught me that great word, EXEGESIS.
 
The goal of Biblical exegesis is to explore the meaning of the text which then leads to discovering its significance or relevance.  In essence, I learned how to break it down, yes suh!  I got that process, but I still need to EFFECTIVELY convey the message of God to the people.  So how do I do that without losing the people?

Bob Hostetler, a Pastor of Leadership and Teaching at Cobblestone Community Church in Oxford, Ohio has compiled a list of 10 Things everyone wants in a sermon:

10. Grab my attention as soon as you start speaking. The great preachers of the past knew how to connect with an audience very quickly, but many modern preachers — even the good ones — tend to start with riveting phrases like, "Turn in your Bibles to Obadiah." Such tactics won't do these days. Think of the first thirty seconds of your message as equivalent to a movie theater preview. You must grab your listeners' attention any way you can-with a dramatic statement, question, story, film clip, etc. — and give them no choice but to listen from "Word One."

9. Teach me something I didn't already know. Ask yourself, "If I were listening to this sermon, what parts or points would I feel compelled to write down so I won't forget it?" If the answer is, "nothing," start over. Every listener wants to be helped to — not spoon-fed — a discovery of new information, new insights, new perspectives.

8. Tell me what God says, not what you say. Even seekers are far more interested in what God says on a subject than on what you say . . . or even what Oliver Wendell Holmes said. Good sermons — whether targeted primarily to seekers or Christians — rely heavily on the Bible as God's Word and let it do the talking.

7. Don't make me feel stupid because I don't know my Bible as well as you. Not only seekers, but long-time church-attendees as well, don't use their Bibles in church — not because the verses are projected up on the screen, but because they're embarrassed at their inability to find Haggai or Ruth in under three seconds (like seemingly everyone else sitting around them). That's why in my church, when it comes time to turn to the Biblical text for the morning, we project on the screen the Bible table of contents with that book highlighted, and say something like, "Ruth is the eighth book of the Bible, and it begins on page 184 in the Bibles we provide for your use."

6. Make me like you, and help me get to know you a little bit. Every speaker at Cobblestone Community Church (even me, perhaps the most visible member of the church) is asked to introduce himself, and is encouraged to seize opportunities to give listeners insight into the speaker's own life and personality — without revealing anything inappropriate, of course (and so much the better if it's vulnerable, self-effacing, and/or winsome).

5. Make me laugh. Not everyone can tell a joke, but then, jokes are far from the only way — and far from the best way — to inject humor into a sermon. Candid observations about our own follies — particularly the speakers' foibles — are among the most effective ways to use humor.

4. Show me you understand what I'm going through. One of the most crucial — and earliest — tasks of any preacher is to identify with listeners. In one message, on "How to Survive Suffering," I began my sermon with the phrase, "Sometimes a speaker bites off more than he can chew," and went on to detail why I felt ill-qualified to speak in a room filled with people who had suffered far more than me: a family losing their business, a couple each of whom were dealing with debilitating illnesses, a mother who'd lost her son, and so on. A sincere admission of our own struggles or a brief acknowledgment of the real-life issues others are facing is the key to identifying with both seeker and Christian.

3. Touch my emotions. Seekers and Christians alike want to be inspired. They want their heart-strings to be plucked. And, while seekers in particular are alert to manipulation, they're nonetheless longing for a preacher who will help them not only to think, but also to feel. Any sermon that fails to engage both mind and heart is likely to disappoint.

2. Meet a felt need. I tell both my writing students and the preachers I mentor that the first question a writer or speaker must answer is, "So what?" If as a reader or listener, I am not promised something I want when you begin, I will quickly begin thinking about what time the football game starts or where I should take the family to eat after the service. And, if I was promised something when you started but you never delivered on your promise, I'll be far less likely to listen — or even return — next week.

And, finally:

1. Tell me clearly how I can apply this to my life today, this week. When I conclude a message at Cobblestone, I assume that all my listeners are interested in following through on what God has said to them. So in addition to giving them opportunity for private prayer and counsel, I try to suggest to them practical ways they can follow up on what they've learned. I've encouraged listeners to write their own mission statement, give away one possession in the coming week, or mail a postcard inviting someone to church the following week.


This is a great list and my mentor had the right idea when she was my instructor. The people to whom we preach to, deserve to have their needs met.  When it comes right down to it, it's not so different preaching to seekers or to Christians. With Christians, of course, you can assume some knowledge and take some liberties. And with seekers, you might face fewer taboos. But both groups seek essentially the same things from a teacher of God's Word-none of which are anything new, of course, but all of which we would do well to apply to every message we speak from now until Jesus returns.