Evaluations Sermon Round #3

Vistesd
1. You stayed on topic.
2. A creative use of scripture.
3. You kept the integrity of the passage.
4. We can all relate to being told to color inside the lines. The temptation is to offer up that analogy as universal experience instead of a personal one so I like how you handled that. Good job on the confessional part of it.
5. You make your point clearly but speaking out against fire and brimstone does not a fire and brimstone sermon make. You are persuasive but not in the style we were looking for.

Josephw
1. You stayed on topic.
2. An appropriate scripture for this topic but not unexpected.
3. You kept the integrity of the verse.
4. You use the confessional mode very naturally here. You take an everyday phenomenon, give breath to your contemplations and use it as a convincing segue to your main point. I’ve really enjoyed watching your writing skills develop and grow in these competitions.
5. This has good F&B apects. You lay down the behavior you feel will lead to damnation and describe awful consequences of that state. To be truly F&B, I’d like to see you extol upon your congregation the best way out. You touch on it but don’t say specifically, “this is how you can avoid being tormented in flame” and so the sermon ends up being kind of Fire and Brimstone Lite. Nice job, though.

It’s clear that a Fire and Brimstone style sermon wasn’t as easy as the other rounds for some of you. It requires aggressiveness coupled with an expression of sincere concern for the listeners’ eternal well-being. It’s a hard line to walk.

With regard to this round, I feel Hand of Hecate came through as the winner. His sermon hit all the criteria and was powerfully written too. TheSkipper and JosephW both made strong showings in this round too and deserve a mention.

Congratulations to Hand of Hercate as he is the winner of Round 3 in the sermon competition. Mimor will announce the theme of our next round.

Originally posted by kirksey957
You're just like the Pope; you want to make the rules without playing the game.

Do not get me wrong, I felt the first one was well done. I was put off
by this, "The judges will be looking for how you use fear, guilt, and
shame to scare people into heaven." If the topic was what it was, why
slip this in? You may have gotten more out of it than what you did.

The style of a message "how people do it" if that is forced too, you
are not getting a clear picture of the mix out there. That is my point,
I'm looking forward to getting involved, I just hope you take off the
constraints of dictating how people must write their message when
you have already told them what to write about.
Kelly

Originally posted by KellyJay
Do not get me wrong, I felt the first one was well done. I was put off
by this, "The judges will be looking for how you use fear, guilt, and
shame to scare people into heaven." If the topic was what it was, why
slip this in? You may have gotten more out of it than what you did.

Are you even pretending to suggest that the 'fear of hell' technique is uncommon amongst
evangelical or charismatic preaching?

Nemesio

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Vistesd

Another contestant who didn't quite understand the topic. This week's sermon was supposed to demonstrate the compelling power of fear, not to discount it. It might be a fine sermon for some other topic like "The Silliness of Dogma", but it didn't do anything to scare me.

I understood the topic clearly, as it was clearly stated; I simply chose (as I did before) not to color inside those lines. So your other comments are accurate—as Mimor put it: “speaking out against fire and brimstone does not a fire and brimstone sermon make.” To use Kirksey’s comment, I knew I was throwing a “curve ball.”

With that said, I think all the judges are doing a fine job—in this, as in the previous rounds—both in terms of their comments and their picks.

Originally posted by Nemesio
Are you even pretending to suggest that the 'fear of hell' technique is uncommon amongst
evangelical or charismatic preaching?

Nemesio

Did you see those words written by me any where at any time?
I also was not complaining to you either.
Kelly

Originally posted by kirksey957
Hand of Hercate surely was salivating over the F&B round. He was in his element. He would fit in nicely to almost all of the churches where I live. He was clear in provoking fear and judgement. One thing that he did that was nice was he had a “cool off” session at the end. That was one complaint I’ve had about the sermons in previous rounds: they end ...[text shortened]... uld be a long long sermon. Also, you might want to begin with the passage you are going to use.

While I agree that I strayed from the confessional mood of the sermon, I disagree with one of your comments. Why does the sermon need to start with the bible passage in question? I stuck it at the end to reinforce my message.

I was starting into a story about Flaggarty's Irish Pub and Molly the Barmaid's lucious lips leading me to a veritable Sodom and Gomorra (For the sins of their inhabitants Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim were destroyed by "brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (Genesis 19:24-25).) I'll save this for the next round.

Plus, why does the sermon even need to have a passage from the bible? Some of the best sermons I've come across appeal to a broader mass of people by not being specific to the bible. Powerful words will draw at a persons spirit sooner than beating them with bible passages will.

Originally posted by Hand of Hecate
Plus, why does the sermon even need to have a passage from the bible?

Lately I've been meditating on God's word as encoded in the packaging of ordinary household products. Consumer gematria...Thy will be done.

Now the messages are coming directly: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/

Originally posted by Hand of Hecate
While I agree that I strayed from the confessional mood of the sermon, I disagree with one of your comments. Why does the sermon need to start with the bible passage in question? I stuck it at the end to reinforce my message.

I was starting into a story about Flaggarty's Irish Pub and Molly the Barmaid's lucious lips leading me to a veritable S ...[text shortened]... ful words will draw at a persons spirit sooner than beating them with bible passages will.

It is about discipline. It is about following the rules given to you. Surely, as the winner of the Fire and Brimstone round you can appreciate the requirement to stay within the guidelines and admonishins of the one making the rules. In true "Fire and Brimstone" fashion, you must whine and complain even when thou hast succeeded. Keep up the good work.

So, when will Round 4 begin?

Originally posted by kirksey957
It is about discipline. It is about following the rules given to you. Surely, as the winner of the Fire and Brimstone round you can appreciate the requirement to stay within the guidelines and admonishins of the one making the rules. In true "Fire and Brimstone" fashion, you must whine and complain even when thou hast succeeded. Keep up the good work.

Thank you, your answer was as succinct and enlightening as I’ve come to expect from a man of the Church.

Originally posted by wittywonka
So, when will Round 4 begin?

I'll announce it today.

Originally posted by pawnhandler
I loved Hand's, actually. Ah, see, I'm not a Baptist or evangelical sort so I've not been to one of those. Then again, I probably would've just gotten annoyed and chosen hell. Thanks for the education, though. It helps me see what you were looking for.

Let me give a true example from America's preimminent Fire and Brimstone preacher, Billy Sunday. He was once giving a revival and this what he said: "I would like all the women in the audience today to cross their legs. (After a pause giving them time to do so) The gates of hell have now been closed."

We don't hear sermons like that much anymore.