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Bulletin 100 Date : 12th Jun 2007
Jesus and the Mobile Pulpit

When we read the Gospels, we can be excused for supposing that when Jesus toured around his home region of Galilee and then to Jerusalem, that he carried with him a mobile pulpit. In other words, when he addressed the large crowds he would take out His mobile pulpit, climb its steps, and start to preach, just like we do in church today, to the crowds which followed Him around.

I suspect not! For one thing, I doubt whether Jesus confined his message to the ‘three key points’ as do Methodist preachers. Secondly, I believe that Jesus was far more dramatic in his presentation than we might imagine when reading the Gospels. Clearly he was a master story-teller but I suspect he engaged interactively with the crowd in order to help them to understand his message. I can imagine him waving his arms around, drawing pictures in the air with his hands, using facial expressions or even plucking ears of corn to illustrate his message. We know that on one occasion he wrote with his finger on the ground (John 8:6). And thirdly, I see Jesus as someone who wanted to be alongside people, not above them.

If Jesus were here today in the flesh, I’m sure he would make use of drama, Powerpoint, story-telling, creative arts and a whole lot of other techniques in order to present the message of the Kingdom of Heaven. He might even have carried around a Fender Stratocaster (electric guitar to the unmusical) and sung the message. I also question whether he would feel comfortable about delivering His message from a pulpit – what do you think? After all, we have to some degree limited our presentation of the Gospel Message to only one of our senses – our hearing. Can’t we also receive the message through sight, smell and touch as well as in the silence?

I would love to hear from you as to how effective the traditional sermon is for you and what other means of communicating the Gospel you find helpful. I found that Paul Field’s presentation of CARGO (his commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery) communicated the Gospel Message most effectively without actually mentioning Jesus once. For me it was the Gospel in action through William Wilberforce and others. It depicted graphically what Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19 and left me wanting to do more to bring about God’s Kingdom here on earth. When evangelism is conducted through the lens of social and political justice it makes sense to non-believers.