Multi-Voiced Church

A few weeks ago, I ordered a new book that caught my attention... by a writer that I appreciate..."The POWER of ALL:  Building a Multivoiced Church" by Stuart Murry Williams and his wife Sian.   I was excited to find it waiting for me on Friday when I returned home from Tampa.   Today I was elated to find a facebook notice from a friend and leader in the Church of the Brethren announcing a webinar today with Stuart on the topic of Multivoiced Learning.   I quickly figured out that I could make the times work for me in my schedule and am delighted that I did.  A second part Webinar is scheduled for next week as well and it is on my schedule.

Stuart was exploring the move from monologue to dialouge in preaching.   Or really a shift from performance by the preacher to learning by and from all!   I really like the idea and actually have employed it some (one facet of it anyways) at Community of Joy over the years.   And I find it a rich time when we have a talk back time after the sermon.  

Another aspect of this mutlivoiced learning that Stuart lifted up today was preparing sermons in a group.  I have employed that facet too but far less frequently and find that it is rich as well.  In fact this week I plan to do just that as I will be using the same passage that our guest speaker used last week because as we particpated in a sermon analysis focus group with her last week (as part of a preaching seminary class she is doing and we are the listening body for her) a wealth of ideas emerged from the group interaction that I thought would be fun to explore this week.

I am anxious now to read this book and have elevated it to the top of my "To Read" pile.   In addition to multivoiced learning it explores, multivoiced worship, multivoiced community, multivoiced discernment and multivoiced church.