Hi. My name is Lesley Vince. I am married and have a husband, 5 sons, 4 daughter-in-laws and 6 grandchildren. I was born in Birmingham, England and immigrated to South Australia when I was 8 years old. Almost immediately my family started to attend a Baptist church which provided a house for us to live in, even though we had not regularly attended in England. My parents became committed Christians and we were very involved in the church community and all its activities and events.
From an early age I felt called to serve God in His Church and was involved in leading children's and youth ministry from my teens. After school I trained as a primary school teacher. When my family were young I juggled home duties, part-time teaching and my church ministry. When my boys got older, I was led by God to go to the Baptist Bible College to do a B. Min.
I have been employed by a couple of churches to serve in a children's and youth pastor role- one was a Uniting church and the other a Baptist church. Two years ago I was employed by a small Baptist church to be their sole pastor, on a part-time basis. Last year I became an ordained Baptist minister and I am still serving in the same church, although this year I am also doing some work in a local R-12 school as a Christian Pastoral Care Worker (formerly called Chaplain).
I have thoroughly enjoyed the first 2 days of this intensive subject so far. It has been a building- onto and extension to ideas and thoughts encountered in a Contemporary Preaching course and other personal reading and reflection on 'faith as imagination', and on involving all the senses etc and creativity in worship and teaching; to enable children and youth to be engaged in an intergenerational worship and learning experience. I am pleased to hear a theological rationale for the use of creativity in our 'presentation' and 'exploration' of the Word. I feel affirmed in some of the things I have been trying to do, and I look forward to exploring more ways of bringing the Word alive for those I work amongst.
I have posted my personal reflection as another Blog which can be accessed by clicking on my complete profile and clicking on the second Lesley's Spot. I will try to cut and paste to this page as it seems that many are unaware of this. It has taken me a while to work this out !!!
Date 27th Oct
Original post 10th Oct in another place !!!
Retyped 27th Oct
Personal Refelection on Living the Bible Course
My journey into pastoral ministry was via many years of children's and youth ministry and as I sought to minister in a way which was relevant to them, I often advocated the need to use more 'creative' elements in church worship services. Years of positive comments from adults who had encountered God through these creative worship or teaching experiences has convinced me that there are lots of ways we can "unleash the power of scripture in a way that leads to personal and corporate encounter with God" and open up the possibility of transformation." (Johnny Baker, "Preaching-Throwing a Hand Grenade in the Fruit Bowl." (Course Reader) Postmoderns want experience and conversation more than lectures, and distrust anyone who sets themselves up as an expert/ authority figure- the clips from the Anthropology class and of the Gen X'er were excellent reminders of the postmodern world.
"Living the Bible in a Postmodern Context" has been refreshing, encouraging and exciting for me as Dr. Steve Taylor presented a wide range of options, experiences, and opportunities for creative and imaginative presentations of the Bible text, to enable people to connect with God's Word, be transformed by it, and live out the text in our postmodern world. Steve kept reminding us that it is essential to keep the Biblical text central and to have a theological rationale for what we do. It was reassuring to reflect on the ideas that God's Word has been expressed in the person and life experiences of Jesus; that Jesus (God's Word) was described as the image or revelation of God; that God's Word was read and confirmed in the community and that people heard God's Word in dialogue with God and God's people. This confirmed for me that creativity and imaginative methodologies are not just gimmicks but are inherent in the biblical understanding of God's revelation of Himself and His Word to God's people.
As a newly ordained minister of the Word, with the responsibility of leading a small local church, I will be able to explore some of the new and different ways of presenting the text at our monthly 'creative' intergenerational services (e.g. stations, Godly play, Lectio Divina, listening to and reflecting the other, artistic displays, colours). However even on the other Sundays, when there is an expectation of 'hearing' a sermon, there are more imaginative ways of presenting the text and "a creation of imaginative space in our preaching could be considered an essential part of its contextualization in a postmodern world." (Wilder quoted in lecture notes)
There are sound theological reasons to value creativity and imagination. God is creative and we are made to be creative (and imaginative) in His image. Secondly Jesus in his person revealed God to us, therefore we should 'live the text' in ways which honour our whole bodies, including the senses.
The DVD about the illustrating of the Bible challenged me to think about giving colour to God's Word, to make it more appealing to the postmodern world. The use of art, illustrations, photos, symbols, cartoons, images etc., help to fire up the imagination of both communicator and hearer. I was inspired by Steve Taylor's Easter Sunday sermon (Course Reader) about "Noli Me Tangere" (described in "The Passion in Art" by Richard Harries, p. 123) to use paintings to bring different perspectives to the text. Steve's use of the painting certainly gave a fresh look at the story of the Resurrection and its impact on our lives in the present.
I have been using an inductive, conversational style similar to that of Lucy Atkinson Rose in the Course Reader (Sharing the Word; Preaching in the Roundtable Church) which has included story-telling, sharing my own and others' experiences, and inviting dialogue from the people. Steve Taylor's ideas about DJing the samples from gospel and culture (to engage with the surrounding culture more authentically) and the outline of other sermon styles i.e. dialogical, multiple voices, and abductive, has encouraged me to add more variety to my preaching. I also need to share some of these ideas with other preachers in my congregation.
In my chidren's work I often offered the text as a sensory experience; by the use of displays, rich environments, the use of 'stations' and varieties of activities and giving take-aways, as an ongoing reminder and engagement with the text. I would like to use these ideas more often with my adult congregation but I am the only pastor, working part-time, in a small church of limited resources and I find this a difficult challenge. I have found that even simple things like balloons and candles and simple banners have made people more receptive to the text. I am challenged to be more intentional about seeking out people to work with me in these areas and to give greater opportunities for them to use their artistic and creative talents to interpret and represent biblical text for the community. This will require a significant length of planning and preparation time, support from the leadership and the setting of some boundaries e.g. budget and space. However as Olive Drane says "It is a matter of using the arts with integrity, rather than (as frequently happens) as a gimmick." (Olive Drane, "Clowns, Storytellers, Disciples, Spirituality and Creativity for Today's Church," BRF, Oxford, 2002, p.156)
During the course it was helpful to think of my creativity as a well which needs to be refilled. I need to allow myself time to go places and do things which energise my creativity. I also need to plan for and give adequate preparation time for even greater creativity.
Another valuable part of the course was about developing story-telling skills. I believe the use of stories is very effective in capturing people's imagination and opening them up to learn more about themselves and others and to explore the potential for living with God in their lives. I use stories often. Postmoderns love stories. People identify with the characters in stories. The experience of Steve's presentation of the story of Paul and the authentic responses of the group has encouraged me to plan to use Godly play in my next 'creative' intergenerational service.
I have found it extremely valuable to reflect on living the text in community. Matt 18:20 says God is present when 2 or 3 are gathered so the Spirit of God inspires the faith community as it engages with the Scriptures. In our conversation around the text we are creating shared meaning (Lecture notes) and there will be a greater revelation of God and the Word from the shared faith, thoughts and feelings of the community than just in my knowledge as the pastor. I love the idea that God's story is an unfinished story and that telling the story in community kindles the new thing that God is calling into being in us (Lecture notes) so that we live the Bible in the present.
So it is important to encourage good community sharing and listening. We need to give people a voice in our faith communities, especially the marginalized. And there are many ways of involving others; acting out the text; small group discussion or activities and reporting back; Godly play; Lectio Divina; sharing stories during the sermon; and inviting response about thoughts and feelings. Two helpful 'open' questions we used in classs were "What struck you?" and "What questions might you ask of a Biblical scholar?" I am challenged to ask of myself more often, "How is the community involved in this sermon?"
Finally I have again been reminded of the awesome responsibility of enabling God's people to engage with the text so that God's Word is revealed to us in community. We must acknowledge that the text is from a different country, language, time and culture, and honour its complexity by exploring the different perspectives, conflicts and tensions it portrays. (Lecture notes) I may find the task challenging and even daunting at times, but God's Spirit enables us, and God's people are transformed as we encounter God in the text, and answer His call to live the Bible in our postmodern world.
