Messy Preaching

13 July 2010

I was asked to preach a short sermon yesterday at a service related to Messy Church, and to choose my own text. I had come across 1 Peter 4:7-11 whilst waiting in the car to pick up a teenager from a concert / party / school event / music lesson - I forget which - and it had leaped out as a passage which could have been written to Messy Churches.

It was a fairly formal occasion with some rather tense people present, so imagine my reaction when the reader started not with the passage I'd asked to be read, but the verses leading up to it. As it unfolded in what can only be described as a lurid list of excesses, the bishop turned anguished eyes on me, wondering why I had selected this passage for an occasion which required something more affirming and encouraging perhaps than an exhortation to give up lust, drunkenness, debauchery, orgies and carousing. One person did say that God had spoken to her during the sermon, but it was definitely not about problems with orgies.

Do have a look at the passage (not the debauchery bit): what do you take away from it for your Messy Church?

'The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen' (1 Peter 4:7-11, NIV).