It was a hot afternoon yesterday - text messages were flying about: partly reflecting on the sermon just heard, partly making plans for some midweek cake - and in the midst, a new word was born: intereveallenging. Yup, you read that correctly: intereveallenging.
In all honesty, I'm not convinced it will catch on... but it encapsulates what many of us appreciate most in a talk.
Interesting
Relevant stories that resonate with our lives. Pertinent questions - the kind of things our friends ask all the time. And an engaging style that makes us want to listen (no matter how tired and grumpy we - well, I - might be feeling at the start of church).
Revealing
A faithful exposition of Scripture. We're not there to be entertained - we want (and need) to hear from the Lord and there's no substitute for getting in to the text. An in-context foray into God's Word brings light to the dark places of our lives, helping us to see just how awesome God is.
Challenging
Talks that merely inform bring burdens - talks that encourage change bring life. There's no greater joy than becoming like Jesus and being spurred on to do that in the middle of a Sunday service is a simply wonderful.
So ... if you give talks, why not aim to be intereveallenging as you prep in the coming days. And if you listen, pray that your pastor will be unswervingly intereveallenging week by week ...
[Intereveallenging ... See, my friends, - I DID manage to use it in a sentence today!]
