6-1 Preaching: Workshop Dialogues
Work through the following dialogues in pairs. Note how the first one brings Sue round to realising that there is mileage in our position, and makes her admit what is lacking in her church going. Note how the second one fails to build up rapport and is constantly locked into conflict. Now write similar dialogues reflecting the need for:
- recognition of our own fallibility
- preaching doctrine
- identifying and touching the raw nerve in others without causing a knee-jerk reaction against us
- correcting others’ misunderstandings without seeming conceited
- seeking the salvation of others rather than proving ourselves right
- to preach Jesus Christ rather than ourselves or membership of our religion as opposed to another one.
Dialogue 1
A: Morning! How was the weekend?
B: Great! Had a real blessed time at church, wow, the minister was really on form.
A: Good! Must admit my spiritual life is a bit of a yo-yo, what goes up must come down, 3 steps back and 4 forward kinda thing.
B: You know, I’m sure you guys are missing out on something. And it’s called simply: the Holy Spirit!! It’ll give you all joy and peace!
A: Hmmm…yeah, you’ve said that before and you know, I really have thought about it. I don’t quite get all the Bible teaching about the Holy Spirit, but you know, I do feel that joy and peace, just from believing deep within me that, you know, it’s all real, that there is a God above, that He loves me through Christ, that the Kingdom of God will come on earth, Jesus will come and raise me and judge me…
B: OK, yeah, actually I do notice you do have a peace. When my husband was late home from work the other night, wow, I was freaking out all over the place!
A: I can’t imagine you freaking out! You seem so calm!
B: Ha, you know underneath I’m pretty wound up.
A: Wound up, yeah, that’s about me too. But I feel so bad that I have what I honestly believe to be the Truth and yet I am so wound up about things. I don’t think it means I don’t believe or I don’t have the right things to believe, it’s just my weakness of faith.
B: Yeah, must admit, my faith gets pretty weak at time! Still, I hope the Holy Spirit’s gonna help me.
A: Well in my low moments I just throw myself before God in prayer and I keep reading His word, and thinking of how Jesus really had my nature….
B: Oh yeah but you’ve got that weird stuff about Jesus not being God, yeah?
A: Well the point is, when my faith is weak, I think of Him like Hebrews says “tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin”. It’s a real comfort, that He was sinless…
B: Sure is. Must admit, I never know where to turn in the Bible. You know what, some times I feel like a total FRAUD!
A: No no, hey, you’re not a fraud, you’re a lovely, real person. You’ve just got your doubts like we all have. But dear Sue, you know, I wonder….wonder wonder wonder…whether this idea that ‘you’ve got the Holy Spirit and therefore if you believe you can do anything, get everything, you’ll feel happy all the time’, you know, I wonder if that doesn’t lead to depression in people and feeling their frauds when they aren’t? Like, I know you are totally sincere, it’s tragic you feel a fraud…
B: Dunno…but you know, there sure are a lot of depressed people in our church, come to think of it. But don’t go inviting me to your church, please!!
A: Come on, I’m not interested in getting people along to our church. You know for me, I’m perhaps a very closed person. What matters to me is my relationship with the Lord Jesus, and showing the fruit of the Spirit, getting that love, joy, peace, and I do feel very very slowly I’m getting there. But, sorry to go on, but you’re so BRAVE to be so open with me!
A: Dunno about brave. But, well, thanks for making me feel I’m not a fraud. Yeah you know, I’m a closed person too. Like you, can’t share that much, actually I sometimes wonder about going to church at all. Well, I really must have a look at that Holy Spirit stuff a bit more. I’ll ask the pastor.
B: Sure, ask the pastor. Maybe I could give you a booklet about it? I don’t want to confuse you, but, you know Sue, PRAY for God to guide you, I do as well, I mean, we’re like children coming to Him…
Dialogue 2
A: Morning! How was the weekend?
B: Great! Had a real blessed time at church, wow, the minister was really on form.
A: Yes we had a good meeting in the ecclesia yesterday, the exhorting brother was great!
B: Yeah, he was all preaching on the Holy Spirit, I swear I almost saw a dove descend on him!
A: Come on now, in the Bible, the word Spirit means power of breath, and Holy means set aside for a special purpose, like in Luke 1 when Jesus is going to be born, the Holy Spirit is called the power of the highest that overshadowed Mary. The Greek word ‘dynamis’…
B: Yeah, woo, you guys! You know what, I don’t care about the Greek, I care about Jesus! I want to be anointed with His spirit! Problem with you guys is that you don’t have the Spirit in your lives, that’s why you’re often so depressed!
A: But don’t you get depressed sometimes? No, I think we are all very happy in the ecclesia, happy because we’ve got the Truth, you know I’ve been reading the Bible many years and I really know it’s the Truth.
B: Yeah but I believe the Bible is the Truth as well!
A: No, I meant, that our doctrines are the Truth, you know, that the truth is the truth.
B: Well Jesus said, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and He’s gonna lead us into all truth, I just say, sit back and be lead.
A: No Sue, come on, we’ve got to read the Bible not just sit back.
B: But we DO read the Bible! I carry a New Testament in my bag everywhere!
A: Yes but it’s not just the New Testament we’ve got to read but the whole Bible, I mean, the Gospel is based on the promises to Abraham and all the types of the Law point forward to Jesus…
B: What types of Law? There was only one law I thought, and now we have grace, come on, we don’t need law.
A: No you just don’t understand, I meant, the types which point forward to Jesus, types in that sense.
B: Oh, I just don’t get this. Let the spirit in your life! Amen!
