SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE
SEVEN WORD REFLECTION
Sometimes less is more and fewer words dig deeper. A presbytery can encourage clergy to participate, or a pastor could invite members of the congregation. It is also something that a pastor can use to explore his or her personal faith. You can even try it as an ecumenical exercise. Recently I read of someone asking people to comment on the issue of race in just six words. She received thousands of responses. I chose seven words because seven is a good biblical number.
The idea is simple. You are asked to respond to a theological topic in exactly seven words—no more and no less. Whoever initiates this exercise can collect the responses and compile a theological compendium for a given group. How would members of your congregation respond to the topic of God? What is the variety of expressions that might emerge among clergy on the topic of resurrection? How might members of different denominations respond to a seven word comment on the Holy Spirit? Would older clergy respond differently than younger clergy when responding to the topic of evangelism? How might a group of seminary students respond to the topic of church?
Let me give you some of my personal examples to stimulate your thinking. In these examples, I’m giving one word topics and including that word in the seven.
God
Greater than my belief.
God is!
Jesus
Infinity incarnated,
God expressed,
Humans addressed.
Church
God’s power
Expressed in
Human weakness.
Faith
Trust in God’s
Meaning for life.
Hope
Life has meaning.
Trust in future.
Humor
Interruption of seriousness
For a greater truth.
Clergy
Called by God
Judged by congregations.
I would love for you to reply to this blog with some of your own. If you do so, provide me some descriptive characteristic s so that I can block your responses into some meaningful categories—gender, age, denomination, lay or ordained. You might begin with the topics I’ve chosen, but feel free to add some of your own. I’ll try to compile some interesting examples of your responses in a future blog.
Unless you let me know that you do not want this, I may also publish them on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Most of all, have some fun. Life is too short and our callings too stressful not to take some time to enjoy the mystery to which we have been called.
Life
Enjoy the mystery
Given by God
