Preached on Paul’s thanksgiving in Philippians 1:3-8 last night. I thought it went OK. However, while discussing it afterwards with Susan it became clear that on one point she had got completely the opposite message that I had intended to convey! I am hoping that it was just her, so I need to do some more research to find out what others heard. Humbling. Looks like I have some mopping up to do…
3 thoughts on “Something Got Tangled”
Comments are closed.
Doggie's Breakfast 
That’s one “advantage” of being a teacher rather than a preacher – you get to find out what the the pupils thought you said when they do their homwework or sit the test. (Of course I knew it all already because of the cafeful formative assessment that I carried out on an ongoing basis – ahem!) What distressed me is the number of times children picked-up on a throw away comment that you hardly remember saying yet apparently failed to remember anything else from your carefully crafted lesson. 🙂
“Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? …”
Hey David, maybe I should set homework, completion of which allows entry into the next week’s service!
A couple of years ago I had a chat with a minister who was re-training as an RE teacher. He said that he wished he’d done teacher training ages ago because it was really making him question what he thought he had been doing in the pulpit. He’d assumed it was about making his sermons as clear as possible but had never thought to ask what the people in the congregation had understood from his preaching. However, this is not an easy thing to do in the context of a typical church service.
Homework might be tricky. What could you give as a punishment exercise if they fail to return it? 🙂 Maybe you should set yourselves behavioural objectives – by their fruit shall you know them.