Excuse me can we have your old TV?

It was with these words that the chap driving the scrap metal van greeted me. Not an unreasonable question you might think and in the right setting, of course it isn't; after all, we all have a living to make, don't we??

Then again, when the question comes in the middle of the sermon  I have to say that perhaps it is!

But this was my experience on Sunday morning as we progressed through the early service, something that caused the sermon to stop for a couple of minutes as we sorted things out. We were soon continuing on our merry ways; them with a TV and a fan and us with the service.

I often feel that I'd like more engagement during the service, the children do it so well but the adults (in some places especially) struggle with this but I really think the sermon spot should be a time and place of interchange as we make our mutual journey of worship and praise.

I love it when someone asks for a clarification or comes back with something that adds, challenges and sometimes entertains. The times when people ask how things are pronounced or struggle with timeframes and the places.

I remember many years back hearing an nearing retirement minister tell the congregation that the sermon was a place where, 'They listened to what he had to say and kept quiet!' But that's not how Jesus taught was it? That's not the way Rabbis teach their disciples (then or now) - and the interaction between them bordered on riot at times.

Perhaps I've had a wake up call regarding my sermons - perhaps I should have more broken TVs in the porch (they were there to raise money for an upcoming India trip for our eldest child)? Perhaps I need to buy another pack of notebooks and pens (and get people to bring their Bibles too!) and encourage note-taking again?

Perhaps I need to ask more questions rather than merely try to enlighten and inform people?

Whadyathink?