Every sermon forms a congregation into something, whether the preacher names it or not. At St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, Associate Rector Peter Levenstrong and his colleagues have spent several years experimenting with Living Stories sermons, a collaborative approach to preaching adapted from Godly Play. The preacher reads the gospel while moving simple figures through the story, then asks a series of wondering questions, and the congregation builds the sermon together. Peter, author of Collaborative Sermons, joins Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm to describe what that looks like on a Sunday morning and what it has done for people over time.
Peter talks about how he mirrors back the best possible interpretation of what each person shares, why he now worries more about what people leave unsaid, and why he compares a lecture sermon to a buffet and a collaborative one to a potluck. For preachers who aren’t ready to try the whole method, he suggests starting with a single wondering question and seeing what happens when you trust the Holy Spirit, scripture, and the people in the room.
