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Worldwide pulpits

by Bill Bowder

PREACHING will soon be tested online, a new book suggests. The book, Preaching with Humility (Church House Publishing, £14.99), urges clergy to consider the challenge of the web. “Our concepts of communication, community, intimacy, self-disclosure, relationships and sharing are being altered by large-scale participation in online experiences,” writes Geoffrey Stevenson, one of the book’s two authors. Mr Stevenson trains clergy in communication skills. His co-author, the Revd Stephen Wright, an Anglican who tutors at Spurgeon’s College. “We will have to develop our theologies of Church . . . to understand those who participate in the body of Christ fully, emotionally, interactively and yet mediated through a screen and keyboard.” Preaching is not “about springing a wonderful surprise on the congregation each week”, Mr Stevenson writes. It is an act of the congregation and belongs to it as much as to the preacher. In consequence, preachers could work with “sermon listeners” before and after their sermon and seek their views via blogs. “How God speaks [in preaching] is a source of wonder.”

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