Living Stories Sermons

If you were with us this week, you may know that our sermon and Gospel passage was a little different!

This is in part due to a continuing education class that I have been taking, about an emerging method of preaching called Living Stories. My favorite way that I have heard the creator, Peter Levenstrong, speak about Living Stories is that if a more traditional sermon is like a prepared, maybe fancier, dinner that you sit down and have served to you, a Living Stories sermon is more like a potluck. A potluck where everyone has the opportunity to bring something to the table, and everyone can leave with some sustenance that meets their needs.

The method is rooted in storytelling, curiosity and wonder, and honoring the shared wisdom that is in the room communally, not from just one or two voices. It is a style that I think particularly suits our way of being church: intergenerational, where we all learn about God and our faith with and by one another. It’s a way that we build a sermon together, perhaps raise more questions than answers (which is what Jesus did a lot!), and find unexpected comfort and hope in the words and perspectives of our neighbors.

I have been lucky to be in the first co-hort of people learning about this method, which you can read or learn more about here, and our congregation at Trinity has also been one of the first congregations to be invited to give feedback on how this style of preaching is working for them. I will be offering this kind of sermon a few times over the summer, and following the next Living Stories sermon (on June 22nd), the congregation will be invited to provide feedback to the group of people learning from the congregations who are engaging in this kind of preaching. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to be connecting outside our walls, and expanding our flexibility and understanding of what church can be and look like! (Plus, there is a bit of monetary reward for our participation.)

I hope as we explore this new way of preaching together that you will not hesitate to share your thoughts, both in our sermon time and after experiencing a Living Story sermon.