A sermon to make you squirm …
How many of us have heard sermons that made us squirm uncomfortably?I’m talking about those sermons that challenge the way we do things or those that force us to confront our apathy on certain issues.
Geez magazine is sponsoring a contest for pastors who preach those sermons that make people squirm.
It’s called the Daringly Awkward Sermon Contest.
The 2009 contest builds upon last year’s “”30 Sermons You’d Never Hear in Church Contest.”
“The world needs bold voices of spiritual depth,” Geez publisher Aiden Enns said in a news release.
”But maybe the message can have an element of holy mischief, a smirk instead of a furrowed brow, and, at the same time, more connection to the pressing issues of the day.”
The Daringly Awkward Sermon Contest invites entries that explore the aspects of social change that make folks squirm, things like privilege, the drunk stranger in the back pew, guilt feelings, or litter in the poor part of town.
The leaders at the magazine said constructing a more fair and compassionate world involves awkward people, pauses and topics, and “we want to find the wisdom in the awkwardness.”
The top three sermons will receive $400 each. The winners plus a selection of other entries will be published in the Spring 2009 issue of Geez. Deadline for entries is February 28, 2009. Word limit is 800.
Enter the contest at contest@geezmagazine.org.
Incidentally, the Winnipeg, Canada-based Geez Magazine is a self-described ”quarterly magazine of spirit and social action.”
Go online to www.geezmagazine.org to see what else the magazine is up to.
(Photo above was taken from the Geez Magazine Web site)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
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