I just finished an incredible week at Regent. I spent the week hanging with 25 pastors and aspiring pastors talking about sermon preparation and delivery and then we each preached a 15 minute sermon.
I learned a great deal from the professor (he is a pastor who just stepped down from leading a church that he took from 1 site to 6 so he had a great amount of knowledge to offer) and the other pastors in class.
One interesting thing I learned though came this morning when the African-American pastors fully explained what "pass the plate" means. You see, after a pastor gives a great sermon it is common in African churches and many African-American churches here in the US, for there to be an offering taken to bless the preacher for bringing the word so powerfully. The idea is that they are sowing into what God is doing because it is clear he is moving in the preacher.
Our professor then told us about his first experience with this, only it was a little different... He was in a church where people just started coming up and putting money on the altar while he was preaching. Then, three other pastors in the class said the churches they are in now (Virginia and Florida) also do that. I can't imagine seeing people throw cash on the altar during a sermon...
However, we are thinking about testing it out. So if any of you are ever at Destiny and you see Megan and I go up to the altar and drop a $20, you will know why. Let me just say, good luck Jim and company!
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It's actually kind of a cool idea! Although I think I'd go broke sowing when Jim's teaching :)
When we first got to Destiny they had a chest down front in the middle where people could give during worship so that it could be part of their act of worship... it was kinda cool. Although I think the look of the chest was a little too cheesy for the young folks which is probably why it disappeared :)
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