Being a Preacher is No Joke... but it sort of is too (Day 10)

Sari sent me a link to this video today and I thought it was interesting because there are lots of parallels to preaching.

Watch the video and I will comment more on it below......

A couple of interesting things......

1.  I like how he talks about working to get just the right phrasing.  A couple of years ago, I saw a documentary about how he comes up with new material and he will literally work on one joke for months.  He will walk into comedy clubs and ask for 5 minutes to try out some new material.  If it does not go quite the way he wants, he will shave a word out here or there, or he will reverse the order of things until it "feels" right.   If you are creative at all, you will get that idea of something "feeling" right.  You just know it when you have got something.  Preaching is a little like that.  I don't work from a manuscript, but I always try to have a couple of phrases that everything else hinges on.... and, somehow, you know when you have them.

2.  I like that he writes all his jokes by hand and with the same kind of pen.  Odd fact:  Did you know that every sermon that I have written in my 23 years in Estevan has been written by hand with the exact same mechanical pencil??????   There is something about writing out an outline that makes it stick in my mind better than when I type it out.   Why the mechanical pencil???  I am not sure.  :)

3.  I like how he talks about doing most of his stuff "behind the scenes" and that it much of it looks like "nothing" to people.  Preachers always get the "Must be nice to work only one hour a week" thing (though I have not heard that in years), but no one sees the hours of study, discussions etc.  And - here is the best part - whether it is a comedy routine or a sermon - if it comes off looking "easy" and "like nothing" then you know that you have done your "behind the scenes" work well.  It should look "easy" if you actually have created something worth saying.

We saw Jerry in Regina last year and I was impressed with his ability to walk on stage with nothing but ideas and hold an audience for over an hour.

The good news in preaching is that you actually get to talk about important things instead of just stupid things.... and if you are lucky, you get to be a little funny at the same time.

The creative process.... it is fun!  :) 
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In other news, there really is no other news.  It was a normal day, doing normal things.  A good day, but not a blog-worthy one (At least there was not anything interesting enough to spend the time making a good story out of it so.........).

Come back soon and I will fulfill my promise to tell the story of how I know that anti-freeze is both sweet and toxic.

I am still working on some of the phrasing for that one so........  :)

Good night!