Some of the best ministry ideas have come out of joking conversations about what might happen if we did something weird in ministry. About seven years ago I was hanging out with Jason Patterson and we were joking about some of the weirdest sermon outlines we have ever heard. Then, we started joking about the weirdest sermon outlines that we could think of.
One that came up together was, "Jesus Cs." What if all the points were the same word or sounding word? The Scripture would be from the gospel story of Jesus calming the storm. Point One, Jesus Seas. The sea of life is not always easy, Jesus allows us, maybe even commands us, to go through rough seas at times. Point Two, Jesus Sees. Though he was asleep peacefully in the boat, Jesus was in control. Jesus sees your rough times. Point Three, Jesus Seize. At our point of desperation Jesus seizes the situation to prove his power and love for us. That is by far my goofiest sermon ever!
When I tried out for First AG in Washington I have a great treatise on the work of the Holy spirit prepared to preach on Sunday morning complete with printed handouts. At about 4:00 a.m. the Lord impressed my by the Holy Spirit that I should preach Jesus Cs. I was like, "oh, no." I will never get voted in here now. But I did.
Starting the Everyday series in 2006 with the same video introduction each week came out of a joke, but it was really powerful! That was before I had seen some churches create a video trailer for sermons. This was literally the introduction to each message. Five sermons, one introduction that led into them all. Hearing the intro five times really made the message stick.
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