Preach Magazine Issue 4 - Preaching in the digital age | Page 51

INTERVIEW JS This issue of Preach is on preaching in the digital age. You are a child of the digital age; do you take the digital world for granted, or do you consciously adapt anything you do in content or style to adjust for the fact that this is the world we live in? Really I’ve only been communicating for five years and all of that has been in a context where Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook exist. It would be bonkers to ignore the digital world when it is the new marketplace. That’s where voices are heard, where debate is happening. One of the ways the digital world impacts on preaching in my experience, is that in a bigger environment like a church or a conference setting, there is a dialogue going on while you dialogue with Jesus and the people in front of you. So as I’m speaking I know people are communicating what’s impacting them online. Afterwards you can track what elements of your talk landed or stood out. You can track it because they’ve tweeted it. I don’t think of Twitter when I’m writing a sermon, but it is amazing how often a tweet of 180 characters will show up that’s actually summarised your whole talk. I do ask myself when I’ve written a talk, how would I summarise that in one sentence? I don’t necessarily want it tweeted, but I do want people to walk away with the ability to remember a simple truth from what I’ve said. Social media plays quite well into that. JS Do you think preaching, in the traditional sense of someone delivering a 20 to 30 minute didactic lecture, works for people young people with no church background? More and more, people are being brought up around discussion. Even the way primary schools are laid out, it’s no longer front-led, in rows. We sit around tables and debate, even as children. Even when I’m preaching, I’ll try and get people talking to those next to them to try and break it up. When it comes to people who don’t know Jesus, if you see the rise of TED, and stand-up comedy, people can sit for a very long time listening to one person talk. I DON’T FEEL LIKE JESUS HAS ASKED ME TO BANG THE DRUM FOR WOMEN IN TERMS OF WHAT I SPEAK ABOUT, BUT I SHOW UP AS I AM, WHO I AM, AND THAT RELEASES WOMEN LIKE YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE. JS So long as it is tight, pacey, funny, interesting? Correct. I’m not saying the word of God isn’t impactful if you aren’t really clever and look like Michael McIntyre, however, if you want to see how to tell a good story, given that we have the best story to tell, watch stand-up comedy and see how concisely they can tell a story. And then practice with your own Bible story or your own story that’s going to illustrate what you want to bring from Scripture. We love story. No one is going to persecute you for telling your story. They might, irritatingly, say something like, ‘Good for you, but that’s not for me.’ And so then how you approach that is to say, ‘Well, how about you? Where are you at?’ The very act of storytelling could be considered preaching, particularly for my generation. JS You are a woman. You are only 26. That’s young to have the platform that you have. Have you experienced your gender and age as a disadvantage or an advantage? Do you feel you have to fight to be taken seriously in certain settings? I’m only able to do what I do because phenomenal, secure men have released me. JS So the men are still the gatekeepers? That’s just where we’re at at the moment with church leadership. In the national Christian picture that I walked into just after graduating, I got a big shock, because I realised I was the youngest by a number of years and a minority by far in terms of gender. That shocked me because I didn’t know it was like that. 51 I’ve been humbled and privileged to work alongside secure men who recognise that they have an opportunity to lay down their lives for others. Younger women really don’t get an opportunity unless they do that. I’ve been blessed by that. I don’t feel like Jesus has asked me to bang the drum for women in terms of what I speak about, but I show up as I am, who I am, and that releases women like you wouldn’t believe. I always get this wave of women of all different ages coming up to me after I speak. I love it when teens come up because I’ve just broken the ceiling for what they thought was possible. Every time I speak I recognise the responsibility of representing Jesus as best I can as Miriam, because at the moment I am a minority, but I 100 per cent believe that will not be the case always. I know a bunch of girls my age that I’m doing my best to throw my weight behind. There are more coming. It’s a case of hopefully being a good door-holder for them. That’s my prayer for me, to be a good door-holder for others. JS What would you say to women who are coming into adulthood, sensing a call, the gifting, maybe getting prompting from others? How would you encourage them to proceed? First of all, pray for your leaders. You want to be their friend, and then share what you thin