\nA pastor told Leadership<\/em> recently, “It seems I’ve been doing a lot more counseling lately.”<\/p>\n\n \nWe asked, “What problems are you seeing more of?”<\/p>\n\n \n“Troubled marriages. Many Christian couples are still together, gutting it out—I respect them for that—but the intimacy is gone. Sometimes it seems my wife and I are the only people in the congregation still enjoying sex.”<\/p>\n\n \nIt’s an age-old problem: not enough volunteers, especially to work with children and youth. In response, many church leaders appeal to convenience: “It won’t take much of your time.”<\/p>\n\n \nBut one youth pastor says he sees good results doing the opposite—recruiting to commitment: “This will take a lot of your time; this is challenging, but there’s nothing more important.”<\/p>\n\n \nA pastor explains, “I used to ask, ‘Will spiritual seekers be comfortable in our worship service and church?’ That was the wrong question. You can’t read much of the Bible in our contemporary context without<\/em> being uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n \n“Our question now is, ‘Will seekers be unnecessarily offended by our actions?'”<\/p>\n\n \nPlanning to make a change in your congregation? In Mikros newsletter, Glenn C. Daman lists four ways people respond to change. People may see change as:<\/p>\n\n \n 1. a friend to be embraced\n \nKnowing which group someone is in can help you tailor your response.<\/p>\n\n Narrative preaching is sometimes touted as the<\/em> means of communicating with a TV generation; a deductive, content-heavy form is often considered out of date.<\/p>\n\n \nEugene Lowry, preaching professor at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, reduces the tension by comparing the sermon’s form to an envelope. The traditional sermon had a logical envelope with narrative inside. Today’s narrative sermon has a “a narratively shaped envelope with rhetorical ingredients inside” (Listening to the Word<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n \nConsequently, “One should no more label a narrative sermon as mere story<\/em> than one would name a traditional sermon mere logic<\/em>. Both story and logic are proper. The question is: Which are the eggs; which is the basket? The changing answer to that question is the revolution of preaching in our time.”<\/p>\n\nHow are you recruiting?<\/h2>
Uncomfortable seekers<\/h2>
Dying 4 change<\/h2>
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\n 2. a companion to be selected with care\n
\n 3. a stranger to be accepted with caution\n
\n 4. an enemy to resist.\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\nYour sermon’s envelope<\/h2>
Managed care<\/h2>