Well the weekend is over and I am wasted, I spoke at the 4 services at Woodmen and at Pierced in the evening. At Woodmen we spoke about the Kingdom of God, and at Pierced on Jesus and Bono.

The Woodmen experience was interesting, I asked the 6000 people in the services to break up in groups of four for 2 different discussions. This freaked a few people out – some even refused to participate. Most engaged though, (it is weird how far we have drifted from the relational basis, the essence of our gatherings together).

Someone came to me after the service saying that she met a ‘real’ person for the first time during a service. She has been part of the church for 3 years and have been part of the superficial ‘let’s walk to someone and great them’ exercise numerous times.

Another person handed me a note saying that God will judge me and that I should go back to my calling to exhort and preach. Amongst other things the note said that I should stop using stories in sermons (sorry Jesus we will have to rip out most of your living from our Bibles).

I’m finding it increasingly frustrating to talk to people I don’t know – I don’t know their names, the rhythms of their lives or the scents of their kitchens. I do know that they live with me through the muck and yuck that we fall into and create ourselves.

I don’t believe in shotgun preaching anymore – In His mercy God uses it – is it really effective?