Monday, August 18, 2008

Competitive Homiletics

Yesterday, in a casual conversation with our pastor and a few others, we discussed the latest Olympic news. Then it was brought up that the pastor would never make it to the Olympics as preaching is not a competitive sport. What followed was some fun speculation as to what competitive homiletics might involve. Here are a few of the ideas:

1. Two types of events - endurance and speed
-Endurance - how long can you preach - last one standing wins.
-Speed - who can get the most points made in the shortest time

2. Degree of difficulty -
-Higher difficulty points awarded for preaching from a difficult scripture passage. Most of Romans would count as higher difficulty.

3. Deductions would be given for ers and ums.

What are your ideas? This could be fun. I was reminded last week of the importance of fun in our ministries, so let the games begin!

9 comments:

God_Guurrlll said...

how about synchronized preaching. two preachers preach the same sermon at the same time.

then there is the liturgical dancing floor exercise.

Anonymous said...

i always have a hard time sticking the landing - actually landed on my butt out of the pulpit one morning!!

walking slowly and looking holy could be another whole category!!

DogBlogger said...

I give Elastigirl a 9.75 on her "walking slowly and looking holy" routine from last Saturday night!

Margaret said...

high deductions for constantly using "and" between sentences rather than stopping one before starting another.
My tradition would like a chant category which could be broken down into synchronized (gregorian), team (anglican) and individual (sursum corda and proper preface with an extra degree of difficulty for those who do the mozarabic chant).

LutheranChik said...

Liturgical gymnastics, with style as well as technical points. (" A beautiful Sursum Corda sweep...but that uneven signing of the cross will cost her...")

mid-life rookie said...

Um - enlighten me - what's a Sursum Corda sweep?

Deb said...

I think there needs to be a "two-faced race" to see who can get themselves caught in a hypocrisy first that they have pounded on the pulpit about...

But you know, since we are in the priesthood of all believers, I think we need to include laity too and have a good old fashioned "offering relay" and end the day with a "chalice chugging" contest...

:)
d

Anonymous said...

:)

and a how much anyone remembers / has applied the teaching by next week prize!

Theresa Coleman said...

You know, I've been thinking about this all week....
Isn't it odd that sometimes things that are really sort of silly (like competitive homiletics) can really get you thinking?

Also:
Because I had an Anglican for worship -- Sursum Corda = "Lift up your hearts" -- and you are supposed to actually lift your hands up in a gathering motion...