I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the discussion that has followed on from my articles about note taking. Responses have ranged from those who find it helpful to have the pressure to make notes taken off them through to those who have found note taking helpful and don’t intend to stop. A lot of you really don’t care too much either way!
To push things a bit further, it might be helpful to note that my intended purpose was not to speak to note takers and try to get them to stop. If you find it helpful, by all means continue. Rather, I had two audiences in mind. First, those who do feel under pressure to take notes. I want to encourage you that this isn’t a required indicator of mature discipleship. Secondly, I want to speak to fellow pastors and especially to those seeking to pastor and plant into diverse cultural contexts, working class estates, multi-ethnic inner-city environments. My focus isn’t so much on whether or not note taking is helpful as on the things that a focus on note taking might distract us from.
To use a food/mealtime analogy, imagine that instead of there being a few articles arguing for and against note taking during sermons, that we were debating whether or not to use a knife or fork to eat dinner. Now on one level, I might say that you don’t really care whether you use a knife or fork when you come to my house. We have spoons and chopsticks available, or if you prefer, you can use your fingers. The important thing is that you get to eat the food. On another level, you might say that it does matter, first because how you eat will depend on cultural context, it might be considered rude for me to demand to use a knife and fork if invited for dinner in Shenzhen. More importantly, we might observe that different types of implement suit different types of food and meal better.
This is where it gets interesting. Suppose I say to you “I’m not insisting that you use a knife and fork but you will find it easier to eat the food I’ve cooked with it than with chopsticks.” Well, you could respond by trying the knife and fork and you might then agree that this did help you to cut up the meat and scoop up the mash. However, you may well point out that if I’ve chopped the meat, marinated it with sauces and spices then fried it with the vegetables in the wok, then not only would you not need a knife and fork but I would have also presented you with a tastier meal that is more digestible and doesn’t leave you to do all the work of getting it into an edible state.
Well, we can debate the pros and cons of English cooking for just as long as we have taken to debate sermon note taking but do you get the point. The instruments we use to serve and eat tell us about the food and how it has been prepared. I can rely on you to select my preferred eating utensils and that can stop me from thinking about my responsibilities as a cook and host.
This is the big point I want us to keep thinking about. What do we see as the purpose and nature of the sermon. My argument is that for western, middle class conservative evangelicalism, the focus is on intellectual content, information to the mind. Furthermore, that it is individualised/private. I expect you to hear so that you can learn something for yourself. Even if I’m thinking about application it is personal, individual, private. I leave you with the question “what will you do differently?” rather than “How does this affect us as a church together?”
My argument is that whilst there is a place for delivering that kind of content, primarily our sermons should have the feel of a meal and a conversation. They should be active not passive, they should speak to all the affections, not just the mind, they should produce heart change not just intellectual growth and they should be communal not private.
I’ve picked up on note taking as one example but I guess there’s a whole host of other things we could treat as analogous with our knives and forks. I would encourage preachers to think about the different ways that we inadvertently shape the tone, style and content of our sermons. Ask yourself what outcome you are looking for and consider whether this is being helped or hindered.
Faithroots 