whiteboard envy and teaching-preaching

This is Rob Bell, best known for his Nooma videos and book Velvet Elvis. Some of his theology can be shaky at times. However, I have seen few people who have such an awesome teaching approach as Bell.

2 examples:

The previously mentioned Nooma videos are a phenomenon that must be seen to believed. These mini-sermons on DVD feature Bell speaking for 8-15 minutes. The amazing thing is that they are the epitome of a sermon illustration. Bell is often observing or participating in the environment, culture, or activity used as the illustration, complete with flawless editing and music. Topics range from Christianity to creation to everyday activity, but almost all include Bell's trademark (if controversial) immersion in Hebrew scholarship and narrative theology. Bell ends each talk, which only has enough time to cover one topic anyway, with a summary statement/challenge. The finished product is a message that drips with understanding.

On the other side of the coin, Bell's recent Everything Spiritual speaking tour (viewed above) is literally him onstage with a massive whiteboard and nothing else for close to 2 hours. The fact that a man can captivate a young audience with theology for 2 hours using notes scribbled on a whitebaord is astounding. It speaks to his ability to structure things in a narrative style. It is this style that gives me whiteboard envy.

Some observations from Bell's board:

• You can't see this from the picture, but when I say massive whiteboard, I mean massive (stretching the entire length of the stage). Bell begins at the left, writes something to the right of center, but is careful to link the ideas using what he scribbles between them. This allows someone to read the completed whiteboard (a copy of which is packaged in the DVD version of the talk) with little explanation. On one hand, you must have good handwriting/write big/know your structure beforehand. However, this lets someone keep up with the entire train of thought, without losing you or asking if you can go back a few Powerpoint slides.
• Bell uses pictures, arrows, circles, underlines, etc. These things help to emphasize points during the lesson, but because he is the one doing the emphasizing, and not a Powerpoint programmed slide, there is much more spontinaity and originality seen by the hearers.
• Going back to seeing the complete narrative on a board: Bell is able to gesture using the enitre narrative, instead of having to isolate himself to a certain time period/set of events/point.
• He doesn't stand in one place or look like a traditional "wandering" pastor.

Teaching with a large whiteboard is something I would like to try. Again, it has its drawbacks (my major concerns are my handwriting and the ability to see it from the back of the church), but the potential is awesome - it fits into something I am passionate about: that a part of worship should involve teaching-preaching as opposed to I-already-know-this-preaching or self-help-preaching. The latter two require little learning curve. But the former requires a created environment that facilitates learning.

What I mean: On any given Sunday in many churches, the pastor preaches to a congregation who were mostly unaware of what his topic/text would be. In an attempt to not alienate visitors/move quickly, the pastor will rarely reference his previous sermons. He will preach no longer than 20-30 minutes, and will use an outline-style format often alliterated for easy notetaking. In my own experience, this produces church-goers who have listened to sermons for years and taken copious notes, yet who have gained little real growth in the knowledge of God.

My passion stems from my own growth at the listening to preachers such as Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, John Piper, Tim Keller, Darrin Patrick, and others. Each of these men preaches from 40 - 120 minutes, yet few complain about having to go to a late lunch. Why? Beacuse in each of their churches, there is an environment that has been cultivated for teaching-preaching. They often spend months (in Piper's case, 12 years) on a single book, and spend more time than the average pastor teaching background information. They provide their church members with an understanding of greater church history. These systematic approaches, combined with usable-yet-not-repetitive outlines and illustrations gleaned from personal experience and culture rather than in the form of "pastor jokes", provide congregations with a foundation for developing theology. Plus, these churches normally upload their sermons online in audio, video, manuscript, or a combination of forms. This allows hearers to relisten to something, look at the pastor's notes (esp. if they preach multiple services), or listen to a week's message if they are absent.

There are arguments against this concept:

• Chiefly, the time. However, again, these pastors rarely field complaints in this area, leading em to believe that if such an environment (expectation) is created, it ceases to be an issue
• Theology is too deep/unnecessary/isn't Christianity simple/we're not speaking to all church goers/etc. This is a pet peeve of mine. Theology influences all the practices and activities and structures of the church - therefore it is immensely necessary. One common misunderstanding is that to teach theology, one will be using big words and concepts (often in greek or hebrew), when in reality, the important part is simply to define words, and keep on defining them so that people don't fall behind. Working slowly is a good thing.
• Teaching isn't evangelistic. While this can sometimes be true, normally a thorough exposition of a text points to Jesus. Plus, this argument is used primarily by people who aren't seeking to tell people about Jesus through doing ministry (ministry that is greatly aided by an understanding of theology) - they want the pastor to fulfill this role.

I think Bell's abilities in both using deep, meaningful illustrations, and being simplistic yet amazingly organized, reflect the example of Jesus, who kept crowds for long periods of time without regard to hunger (and then he fed them), taught perplexing spiritual truths his own disciples couldn't understand, and used the environment around him as means for teaching...and he didn't even have a whiteboard.