a month or so ago i was asked to speak at this year’s first uwsp intervarsity large group meeting. they wanted the message to talk about “what is the gospel” (their theme for the semester). since i believe that the new testament teaches that the “good news” (aka “gospel”) is that GOD’s kingdom is at hand and the old kingdom has been and is being defeated (in other words another world is possible) i thought it might be fun and memorable to stage an imperial coup in the midst of the intervarsity large group meeting. one of the threads, jackie, is involved in the uwsp belegrath society (sorry guys i can’t find a link for you). this group was gracious enough to come and help with the sermon by arranging an attack while i was speaking. it was amazing! it was the first time in my life that i have ever needed to give a danger warning before a sermon. i basically told people not to stand up for 10 minutes unless they were ok with being beaten back into their seats. i even found music for the two parts of the fight – the “the imperial march
i really need to figure out other ways that i can involve sword play into sermons.
SIDE NOTE – this past weekend pam and i got to spend time with some amazing friends. bart and carol pierce have come up to wisconsin for the week and we are getting to spend time with them. this past weekend matt and alan joined them and we got to hang out with them. it was a pretty wonderful weekend.
