Lesson Goal
To create an adventurous kind of sermon that is like a fox hunt or a game of chase which builds towards a climax at the end.
Lesson Intro
In our neighborhood the old fashioned game of tag was called chasey. It was a chase, a mission and an adventure all wrapped up on one. As I grew up, we also played more courageous games like British bulldog and capture the flag. Team sports like football, volleyball, and baseball also became an adventure with unpredictable results. Solo sports like tennis, swimming, track and field, golf, paintball and windsurfing provided me with a sense of adventure as well. Perhaps you can remember some of the fun you had in games and adventures that you have had. As adults we sometimes retain that sense of adventure by going into business, by taking vacations to fascinating places or watching television dramas. Sermons can also create a sense of adventure and excitement.
Lesson Plan
We will look at the subject of adventure, whether it is predictable, manageable, the risks, introduce the important topic of adventure discipleship and show how to create an adventure sermon.
Lesson Body
1. Is an Adventure Predictable?
One of the facets about an adventure that excites the participants is that it is not predictable. Where do we go from here? How do we get there? How do we overcome this obstacle? A mystery drama also contains an element of adventure. Who dun it: the butler, the maid, or the chauffer? This is something that a mystery leaves unanswered until near the very end. Until then it's a guessing game with many false suspicions and blind alleys. While some few people are annoyingly skillful at guessing "who dun it" long before the end, most of us are left hanging until the last few minutes.
Many sermons are boringly predictable, and while that is needed sometimes, it is mind-numbing when it happens all the time. Just as we don't want every meal to be an adventure into strange foods and exotic tastes, neither do we want every sermon to be an adventure, but it is fun and even healthy every now and then.
2. Is an Adventure Manageable?
Believe it or not, you can actually get a degree these days in adventure management. It is part of the tourism curriculum at some universities. In a sense then, the preacher who does an adventure sermon is also an adventure manager. Besides special skills for a specific activity, adventure guides must have skills in planning, health, first aid and risk management.
For example, suppose I want to lead an expedition to a particular wilderness location. What do I need to do to prepare? I need to know the climate and seasonal weather conditions. I need to make sure that appropriate clothing and footwear are worn. I need to pack appropriate food and plan for shelter. I need to know the terrain for drinkable water, trails, river crossings and if I need ropes for some climbs. I may also need maps and a GPS. I need contingency plans for emergencies, such as a first aid kit, trained staff, and possibly radios and a satellite phone.
3. What are the Risks?
In an adventure sermon, there are also risks that have to be managed. It is not wild animals or dangerous falls, but the danger of people jumping to wrong conclusions or believing you have suddenly taken leave of your senses and gotten some wild ideas in your head. What do I mean? Remember the old radio show about an invasion from Mars that people actually thought was real? Despite the fact that it was announced several times that the show was a drama, people panicked, thinking that a real invasion from Mars was being reported. The same thing can happen in your adventure sermon if you are not careful. So plan wisely to avoid any misunderstandings.
For instance, if you are playing a guessing game, keep them guessing until the very end, but don't let them think for a minute that you are going off track in your theology, or that you have suddenly gone off in some other wrong direction. It can easily happen if you are not careful. For instance, suppose you want to preach on the most important doctrine, you could ask a bunch of questions, like: Is repentance, the cross, baptism, faith, hope, etc. the most important thing? Those questions could each be a point in your sermon. However, the answer to each question would be no that is not the most important doctrine. Then in your last point you could point out that the most important doctrine is __________ (you fill in the blank).
I would say that love is the most important doctrine, based upon Jesus' Great Commandments and 1 Corinthians 13. It could be argued another way I suppose. The risk management in such a sermon would be to avoid letting people think that repentance, the cross, baptism, faith, hope, etc. are somehow unimportant useless appendages or giving the impression that you think they are.
4. What is Adventure Discipleship?
One of the great advantages of a well-planned adventure is the lessons that it can teach. Most of us today do not grow up having been a boy scout or girl guide; so many business corporations will take their staff on a purpose-designed adventure. It can teach great lessons in innovation, morale, confidence, build team spirit and a "can do" attitude.
Likewise, an adventure sermon needs to teach lessons. Frankly, Jesus' example was to not just preach, but do so while he and the disciples were on an adventure. They walked the length and breadth of the Holy Land. Many churches today will relocate services to a city park, beach, and mountain retreat and so on, to try and recapture some of Jesus' adventure discipleship. If that option is not available to you, some of that journey still can be created in an adventure sermon. Make sure that it is not just a fun sermon with no point, but also an opportunity for people to actually learn something of lasting value.
Example Sermon
Title: "Final Exams"
Goal
Encourage good works.
Intro
Do you remember ever having had a teacher who gave you a copy of your final exam at the beginning of the semester? It happened to me a couple of times. The purpose of such a teaching technique was apparently to actually help us to learn something, rather than just pass a final exam.
Plan
Today we will look at several things that people think are on our final exam, which are actually not. Then we will take a peek preview of what is actually on our final exam, so that we can all know ahead of time what our responsibilities are in preparing for heaven.
Body
1. Is being Faithful in Attendance on the Final Exam?
Maybe you are one of those Christians who believe that if you get 100% in church or Sunday school attendance, you will get to heaven. Sorry, but as wonderful as all that may be, it isn't even on the exam. Don't get me wrong. Church attendance is a good thing, but it is not even on the final exam. Some people attend a few times, and find the right answers very quickly, but others attend several times a week every week for years and still don't get it.
2. Is doing Religious Stuff on the Final Exam?
Maybe you are one of those Christians that believes that if you do the rosary thing enough times, or do the prayer thing often enough, or do the tongues thing often enough, or do the mission trip thing enough times, or travel far from home to hear some special preacher, or sing in the choir, or give your tithe faithfully, then you can pass those final exams. Sorry, but as wonderful as all those things may be, none of them is even on the final either.
3. Is Repentance on the Final Exam?
Maybe you haven't repented enough, flagellated yourself enough, or been sorry enough for the horrible mistakes you've made. Maybe you need to go through the whole repentance thing all over again. Is that what the final exam is all about? Sorry, but as necessary as repentance is, that was an entrance qualification to the course and is not even on the final exam. You don't need to return again and again to those first things of the Christian faith (Hebrews 6:1-3).
4. Do I Need to Make an Enormous Personal Sacrifice?
Some people think that they have to do fantastic things for God to be happy with them, that they need to sacrifice beyond all measure and reason. Perhaps they are trying to satisfy a hard-to-please father image. Perhaps they are responding emotionally to a visiting missionary, not realizing that God has not given them the gifts and abilities for such a grueling task. It takes a very specially gifted couple to live and thrive in the mission field at the garbage dump outside of Cairo or Bangkok. And there are plenty of stories about ill-prepared would-be missionaries who just have to be sent home, because they are neither required nor helpful, nor doing themselves any good. The greatest mission field is in our own back yard, and the people most qualified for that mission field are those with "local knowledge." Who better to have local knowledge than you? No, sorry, but becoming a foreign missionary or making some other similarly mammoth sacrifice is not on the final exam.
5. What then IS on this Exam?
Well, when we discussed religion, we were getting close. The trouble is that what people think is religion and what God considers to be true religion are often VERY different things. We think that religion is the wearing of a prayer shawl, praying with our bodies in certain positions, saying certain formulas like the prayer or Jabez, or doing some other religious rite. James says that true religion is identified with (1) keeping control of our tongues, (2) serving widows, orphans and other needy people, and (3) keeping ourselves from being polluted by the world (James 1:26-27). We don't even need to be at church to be involved in that kind of religion. That is a clue to what I'm talking about. The final exam is in the Bible, not in some church manual, a book by some popular religious author, or even things that your Christian friends may have told you.
Let's take a look at one important part of that final exam. Let's look at Matthew 25 starting in verse 31. Jesus' final examination of his people is contrasted with a farmer sorting what some countries call the small cattle: the sheep and the goats. The criteria for pass or fail in this final exam were none of the things we mentioned. It was not attendance at church, doing religious stuff, doing beginning Christian stuff over and over again, nor was it making an astronomical self-sacrifice to try and buy our way into heaven. It was really a simple examination. Pass or fail was determined by how they had fed Christ’s family (Christians) when they were hungry, quenched the thirsty, showed hospitality to strangers, gave to those in need of clothing, cared for the sick and visited those in prison.
6. Prepare Now
Sometimes when people say that salvation is by faith, we forget that saving faith is a living faith. Faith without good works is dead (James 2). A living faith is alive with good works. The final exam is easy. It is a practical exam. When the day comes we can all be ready. A living faith will motivate us to be serving, giving, inviting and caring of those who are in need. Pure religion is not doing church stuff alone, or even something we have to do AT church, but something you and I normally do outside of church time.
Let's make a simple, personal check list. This is not some man-made, legalistic list. It is a list of things Jesus discussed for our final exam. How are we doing so far?
Hungry Yes/No
Thirsty Yes/No
Strangers Yes/No
Clothing Yes/No
Sick Yes/No
Prisoners Yes/No
I think we all have some work to do. Let's allow the Holy Spirit to prick our consciences and make this, our true religious duty, a high priority.
7. Works?
Some people may object that this seems to be salvation by works, but we must remember that this is not the whole story. We are saved by faith, but according to James, faith without works is dead. Saving faith is a faith that is alive with good works. This is not the works of the Old Testament law, but good works.
Some may also object that this is not the Gospel, but every parable is a part of the Gospel. This parable is certainly good news for those who have been found to have served their fellow brethren in need. The Gospel is bad news for those who don't believe it, and those who practice a dead faith, without good works.
Outro
All I can do is teach what Jesus commands a preacher to teach. It is our job to do what Christ would have us do. I want to see every one of us there among the sheep on that day. The final exam is ready for us to preview. Let's read it and other parts of our final exam daily in our personal Bible study and let's all pass with honors. Let’s serve the needs of our fellow Christians who have been overlooked and ignored.
Suggested Assignment
Take a passage of scripture or topic that has a lot of urban legends or misunderstandings surrounding it. Each of those misunderstandings can be put in the form of a question and dismissed one by one. This will give the topic so much more impact when you finally reveal it in your last point.
Lesson Outro
We have looked at the subject of adventure, whether it is predictable, its management, the risks, introduced the important topic of adventure discipleship and seen how to create an adventure sermon. An adventure is only an adventure if it occurs on special occasions. Otherwise it is just another hike through the forest. Use this technique when you really want to make an impact on a vital subject.
