On Oct. 11-12 of this year, Duke Divinity school hosted its most well attended ever Convocation (over 900 ministers and laity), in the main because of its line up of speakers— N.T. Wright, Rob Bell, and Andy Crouch to just mention the main lecturers.  The weather was perfect, the hospitality was great, and the conference turned into a reunion of old friends, and so a good time was had by all.  In this first of several posts we will talk about Rob Bell’s contribution to the conference.  He gave the Hickman lecture on Tuesday, and also provided a seminar on preaching (and it was announced that he now has various sessions on this important matter for download on the Mars Hill website). 

 

If you’re wondering why the pictures are a bit fuzzy, well Rob is a whirling dervish, always in motion. In his preaching seminar, entitled “The Need for Endlessly Waking Up”  Rob addressed the issue of sermon planning and preparation.  The title of the session was referring to the need to pick subjects well in advance, turn on one’s radar and then gathering up resources over a period of time, instead of letting the tyranny of the urgent, and the few precious hours during the week of the sermon decide the issue of what you say.   He is trying to move us from ‘having to say something, to having something to say’.

Rob urged us to cultivate a sacramental imagination. Using the example of Jacob at Bethel, who famously said “Who knew God was in this place”  he reminded us that its not a matter of God showing up, its a matter of us becoming aware that God is already in the place, and we need to have our radar on to catch the vibe, hear the still small voice, etc.   He drew as well on the example of Moses at the burning bush, and the observation that ‘in Moses, God found someone slow enough to actually notice the bush was always burning.  God found someone who didn’t have a short attention span.

Rob stressed that Jesus wanted to have the first word, not the last word. After speaking, one must create space so the Spirit can do his work.  He then observed that liturgy is like building a cathedral of words and inviting people to come in and look around.

In the Hickman lecture, entitled the Heaviness and Lightness of Following Jesus.  Here Rob discussed a eucharistic paradox at the heart of the Gospel.  It is both serious and fun, it involves euphoria but it also involves suffering.   Example of heavy— ‘take up your cross and follow me’. Example of light— ‘Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy, my burden is light’. Of course anyone who starts talking about light burdens is already dealing in paradox.

As Rob says, sometimes ministers settle for less that what God wants of them in preaching, teaching, pastoral guidance etc. They signed up for a revolution and ended up being spiritual managers or spiritual P.E. teachers.  And there is a danger of getting addicted to the ministry buzz, and the need to be needed.   He went on to stress that the wise proclaimer knows: 1) he is not in control of what happens, and so you need to be able to just let it go, and hold the outcome loosely; 2) you need to realize that nothing is wasted in God’s economy, he works it all together for good, including the failures; 3) you need to remember that what determines what you say should not be what the audience wants or prompts you to hear. You are not there to meet their perceived desires, nor to talk in a way that makes them love you even more. Any way, you find out after a while that though they may be sheep, they have teeth.

There is much more that could be said about Rob’s sessions which you can get from the download at the Duke Div Convo website in about two weeks. Consider this a preview of coming attractions.