{"id":166310,"date":"2015-10-27T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=166310"},"modified":"2015-10-26T22:40:45","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T03:40:45","slug":"review-rebuilding-your-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/review-rebuilding-your-message\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Preaching and Teaching (Review: “Rebuilding Your Message”)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I used to think I was indecisive. Now I’m not so sure. I can usually come down squarely on one side or the other about my opinions on books. Bumped<\/em>? Loved it.<\/a> Wild at Heart<\/em>? Did not love it.<\/a> Then I read Rebuilt<\/em>, and I mostly liked it<\/a>. I liked its foundational ideas, although I thought it had some flaws. And now I have read one of the follow-up volumes: Rebuilding Your Message: Practical Tools to Strengthen Your Preaching and Teaching<\/em><\/a>, again by Fr. Michael White and Tom Corcoran. It is definitely practical, but I don’t know if I’m totally on board with these practices.<\/p>\n

In general, I’m ambivalent about this book. Some of the advice is definitely needed. I agree with these authors (and others) that forming disciples is the true mission of the Church.<\/strong> That is where we need to direct our energy. I’m totally behind that. I agree less that focusing on attracting new<\/em> disciples is the best action plan to fulfill that mission. Forming and strengthening existing disciples should inspire them to make new disciples. I’m all about reclaiming the lost sheep in the new evangelization<\/strong>, and that seems to be the fundamental difference that keeps me from loving books by Fr. White and Corcoran.<\/p>\n

They mention that they describe their goal (explicitly, during the announcement portion of Mass) as being “a church for people who don’t like church.” That will definitely help get the unchurched in the door. But will it make the churched, so to speak, stay? Is it also a church for people who like<\/em> church? Do disciples like church? Is liking church bad?<\/p>\n

\""Street

This is not the message you want your parish or speaking to send. (Public domain image from bossfight.co)<\/p><\/div>\n

They come down against “yawning, cavernous silences in the liturgy.” The world is already full of noise. If it weren’t, minimalism wouldn’t be a thing. Those crazy acrobatic scenes from The Matrix<\/em> would not have been nearly as popular. There can definitely be too much of a good thing, but removing intentional silence from the liturgy is a bad thing. Perhaps a happy medium would be to emphasize the “intentional” part of that silence. We’re not supposed to be waiting for Fr. What’s-His-Name to find the right page in the book after he says “let us pray,” we’re supposed to be using that time to pray silently<\/em>. We’re not staring at the lector as she approaches the ambo, we’re settling our hearts and minds so we can hear the Word that God is speaking to us in that moment. (Regarding another specific slight to “churchpeople” in this book, I actually do listen to the readings. I like reading. That’s why I write book reviews.)<\/p>\n

“Wow, lady,” you might be thinking, “what did<\/em> you like?” A lot of it, actually. The authors devote roughly half the book to focusing on preaching as a God-focused application of basic public speaking<\/strong>. It’s easy for all of us\u2014”churchpeople” and disciples, I guess\u2014to forget that preaching is a skill. It’s an art. It’s a gift that not everyone has. It requires preparation, focus, and evaluation just as much as inspiration.<\/p>\n

There’s so much good advice here for reflecting on your role as a speaker that I can only offer you bullet points because I don’t want to rewrite half the book:<\/p>\n