Pastors Conference

FINALLY COMES THE CULTURE CRITIC:
Daring Preaching for Postmodernity

A conference on how to make sure you listen for the gospel in culture before you preach the gospel at culture.

Monday, Nov. 14, 2005

Second Christian Reformed Church
710 Front Street, Lynden, Washington [map]

Speakers

John Suk is President elect of the Institute for Christian Studies, professor at Asian Theological Seminary, former editor of The Banner, and pastor.

Sermon to be presented: "King Aragorn's Ambassadors." Text: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

This sermon picks up the Aragorn story where Tolkien left off--with a surprising twist or two along the way. The sermon "resonates" with Paul's invitation to his Corinthian readers to be "ambassadors of reconciliation."

"Preaching for Postmoderns" paper: Contemporary media have profoundly reshaped the cultural setting, the listening skills and the expectations of modern church audiences. This paper, based in part on the insights of contemporary communication scholars such as Walter Ong, David Olson, and Elizabeth Eisenstein, argues that oral communication in non-literate societies is a helpful analog for understanding and solving some the challenges preachers face in today's post modern, post high-literacy context.

John Van Sloten is the Pastor of Preaching at New Hope CRC in Calgary. A former real estate developer, he has spent the past 8 years developing a new kind of culturally relevant Sunday morning service.

John will present a sermon selected from culture's tales. It will speak of God's grace through one of the stories of Metallica, Evanescence, the Simpsons, Johnny Cash, fashion, the music of U2, or perhaps the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh.

"Preaching Culture" paper: This paper pulls the curtain back on the preaching culture practice to root it in theologically sound territory, exploring concepts like common grace, general revelation, being made in the image of God, the fact that our world belongs to God, old time Reformed creation theology, and even the practical application of article 2 of the Belgic Confession. We are urged to forge new homiletical paradigms. We are challenged to come closer to the heart of Missio Dei as individual congregations, and perhaps even as a Christian Reformed denomination.

Host and Panel Discussion moderator: Mark Davies, Pastor of Second Christian Reformed Church, Lynden, Washington

• theologically reflect on how preaching should-and shouldn't-accommodate itself to contemporary cultural trends
• explore the theology behind these messages
• learn how contemporary cultural narratives can be used to inform preaching and engage audiences
• discover how to discern where God is already at work in 'unchurched' culture

Schedule

      "John Suk is a man with a heart for the truth, who loves the Church of Jesus Christ, and who knows how to articulate the Gospel in a way that breaks through the complexities that our questions raise, getting at their core."
Rev. Ken Koeman is senior pastor of the Sonlight CRC of Lynden, WA and former editor of the Q/A column of The Banner

      "John Van Sloten's work opened our eyes to how the living Word can be embodied not only through the spoken word but also through paint, design, and music.  It helped us to find new, creative ways to communicate Christ to a postmodern world.  It's refreshing to see the fine arts make a comeback in worship."
Tom Bomhof and Albert Westerhuis, co-pastors at Fleetwood Christian Reformed Church, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

Sponsors

This event has been made possible by a grant from the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence program of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. in conjunction with the Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary.

This conference is funded in part by: The Institute for Christian Studies.