13 Homilies Your Community Needs to Hear - Part II

In this four-part blog series, I am sharing 13 homilies or teachings people need to hear regularly for their personal spiritual health and growth as well as for the communal health of the parish. In the last blog, I shared the first three. Here are teaching topics four through six:

Four: Preach on prayer basics and how to pray.

The catechism says, “Those who pray are certainly saved and those who don’t are certainly damned.” That makes prayer pretty important. No one disputes that prayer is vital to our Christian walk and so often homilists tell people to pray, but rarely does anyone preach on prayer basics and how to pray. In Hosea 4:6 God says, “My people die for lack of knowledge.” Many people flounder in their prayer lives because they lack knowledge. What knowledge and basic information do they need?

Prayer basics would remind people to have a time, a place and a plan for prayer. Invite people to set aside some time each day for prayer on a daily basis. We teach that the length can be short but consistency is vital. Encourage them to set aside a certain place where they can have concentrated time with God. Offer a simple plan to get started of how they will interact with God during that time. Share what you do in your prayer time and what you are learning about prayer as an example of what might work for others.

Also, teach people to persevere in prayer and not give up or beat themselves up on failed attempts. Perhaps Jesus’ most consistent message on prayer was to persevere and not give up. People quit praying because they feel like failures. Let people know they will be tempted to give up or feel like prayer isn’t working, but to keep on going. Thomas Merton’s famous quote on prayer encourages me when I feel like a prayer failure. He said, “We do not want to be beginners [at prayer]. But let us be convinced of the fact what we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!”

Five: Faith and finances go together.

Jesus teaches on the Sermon on the Mount that money and possessions represent greatest competition God faces for our hearts. He says, “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) If that was true to a largely agrarian society, how much more is it true for our consumerist society that is the most marketed to in history.

From time to time, our community needs to hear messages on money that offer people a spiritual foundation on the topic. We want people to know that we want something for them and not from them. This message needs to be disconnected from any kind of appeal or ask for money to make it a clear spiritual teaching.

Some basics we need to teach:

• God owns everything; we are stewards and not owners.
• We can build treasure in heaven through giving
• Money can move our hearts in God’s direction.
• Don’t worry about money; trust in God to provide.
• Giving is an act of worship.
• Disciples give to the poor and those in need.

If you look for it, you will find many opportunities in the lectionary to preach on money. The parables of the dishonest steward, the rich man and Lazarus in Luke, and the parable of the Talents in Matthew are excellent opportunities to name a few.

Six: Give to your place of worship as an act of worship. Host a stewardship weekend.

While it is important that you teach people about money without an ask, it is also vitally important that you ask you parishioners to give to the parish. We encourage every parish to have a stewardship weekend, where they invite parishioners to prayerfully make a financial commitment to the parish in the year ahead.

The message reminds parishioners that giving is an act of worship and at the same time funds the ministries and work of the parish. Leading up to and on our stewardship weekend, we offer a framework to help parishioners decide on their commitment. We call it the four P’s of giving:

• Planned – be intentional about your worship offering.
• Priority – make it a priority to give to the parish by giving electronically or automatically.
• Percentage – choose a percentage to give.
• Progressive – look to progress in your giving.

Most importantly it is a celebration of the parish and the impact we are having. We share stories of life change.

Many of these topics are only stand-alone messages but can be preached in a whole series.
To learn more about how to preach in a message series, check out our online Equip Course on the topic at rebuiltparish.com/courses

Rooting for you,
Tom