ArticleBlog | All age online preaching: engaging better during Covid-19
All age online preaching: engaging better during Covid-19
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 12.12.20
In 2019 I wrote a book called Preaching with all ages, in which I used theological reflection on my own experience as an all age preacher to draw out some of the key values that had come to underpin my approach.
Engagement
It should probably go without saying that people engage in different ways, and our preaching can reflect this. You may already have reflected on learning styles, and how you can use visual, auditory and kinaesthetic approaches in all age preaching. David Csinos’ Spiritual Styles (see www.davecsinos. com) goes further: it is a sophisticated, research-based model charting how people of all ages engage with matters of faith and spirituality through the intellect and the emotions, through mystery, and the pursuit of justice. It’s hugely insightful for preachers looking to enable a diverse congregation to encounter God together in preaching.
Whatever people’s preferred styles of engaging, it will require some kind of active and genuine participation. Active, because preaching is about encounter and transformation – it is not something that should be ‘washing over’ people, and even attentive listening is an active process, provided we also give people time to think. And genuine, because when we ask members of our congregation to come to the front and do something, or to answer a question or share an idea, what we are asking of them must be a genuine contribution. ‘Come here and hold this up’ isn’t participation.
