I was sitting by my daughter, Eden, last week in church, and she pulled this out of the hymnal in front of us:
Yes, that's right. . . on June 5th, 2011, a sermon outline (fully filled out and notated) from September 21st 2008 was found, stuffed in a hymnal, in our worship center. Wow, I'm sure glad all those notes were taken, I bet that sermon really changed his life (come on, that has to be a man's handwriting). He obviously hasn't needed those great insights on his outline for these last 3 years.
Now, I know that some of you listen by taking notes. . . and I think that's great. I just think there's a way to take notes to try and get everything down and make additions "so you'll remember later" (boo). . . . and there's a way to jot things down to process your current thoughts. (yeahee)
See, sermons (and singing together as the church) are things that happen in a moment. It's a real thing, it's really happening. We all need to be in those moments together and present there as the Church. Tim Keller says we should preach to "change someone on the spot". I think that's true. We should be changed, even in little ways, every time we hear God's Word. Perhaps the change is as simple as quieting your heart from a busy week and remembering that God has saved you. That's an important "change" that we should be present for, as we worship together.
So, take notes if you must, to help you listen. . but don't fill in all your blanks, write down all the points, and forget to listen to the Holy Spirit while you're in church. Basically, don't do what this guy did (and then leave your outline from 3 years ago in the hymnal).
9 comments:
dude my heart totally skipped there, that looks like my handwriting but then i realized that i don't use lowercase letters... so it's not mine. phew.
don't be a hater on note-takers, sheesh, you're gonna make people scared to go to church with your rules.
I totally said people can take notes. It's just how we take them and why. I actually think people are scared they're going to forget something, so I'm trying to free them up. . . . .
(if you really wanted to go over some stuff again. . that's why Al Gore invented the internet. )
They could be my notes.
Here are mine from last week :
http://bit.ly/ioD6tO
You guys are hilarious. . taking it all personally and stuff. . .
Here's the deal, I just think people should pay more attention to what God is saying to them in the moment, than trying to get everything down (like I said in the blog, that doesn't include people who need to be writing to listen. . . I get that). That's all, no judgement.
John Piper actually posts a verbatim manuscript of his sermon by Monday every week and tells people to not take notes. Tom doesn't do a manuscript (yet, we're working on it) but you can watch it anytime if you want to hear something again. . . .just sayin'.
Uh uh... No... your hilarious :-)
Seriously - I would fall asleep if I didn't take notes. Hey, maybe that's what God is trying to say to me in the moment. "Rest!" (Matthew 11:28-30). Do you think Tom would be offended?
No one in Erie has ever left their notes in a hymnal. Just sayin'. Maybe we love Jesus more.
Or, it might be satanic because you don't have hymnals :)
oh bummer. . that was a comment from me, Aaron.
Can someone please invent a "google cloud" or something where it knows that I'm typing and not Jody??
I don't actually listen to sermons. I walk around after church and collect notes people have left and try to deductively figure out what the pastor might have said. I encourage people to take more and better notes AND leave them lying around.
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