This past Sunday marked the end of the “Kingdom Collision” sermon series at Central.  For folks who weren’t reading my blog back when I was prepping Kingdom Collision, this series took a look at the Gospel narrative and then looked at the political impact Jesus’ teachings would have had in the first century.  This series basically came from a question I asked once, “How did the Romans hear Jesus’ prayer, ‘thy Kingdom come?'”  Having come to the end of this journey, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on what “Kingdom Collision” accomplished.

From a personal standpoint, this was one of my most rewarding series to prepare for.  The books I read, the amount of Biblical Material I got to deal with, and the threading of the Biblical world into this one was all a wonderful joy for me.  I learned a lot, which is one of my goals in anything I do.

From a pastoral standpoint, I think it’s impact was so-so.  Central seemed to be scattered to the four winds over the course of the fall, and I didn’t do a very good job unifying the theme of the series for folks.  Looking back now I think I would have written a small-group guide to go with the material, and tied in a community prayer event on Election night (which was the obvious backdrop for the series).  I think these things would have encouraged people to be more regular in their attendance because it would have tied the journey together better.  The lack of these things falls squarely on me, I’ll know better for next time.

On the other hand, I got to touch on a lot of issues in our day within the context of Jesus’ Gospel, things which I might not have an opportunity to touch upon.  For the first time as a pastor, I felt free to pursue more of a lecture-style sermon and present to people some of the historical background to the Gospels, as well as the “big issues of the day” that that Gospel’s themselves dealt with.  That first sermon of the series remains a highlight for me.  I also think that a few people were forced to wrestle with the implications of Jesus turning the culture war of his day on edge.  He refused at all turns to be boxed into the “only options” that situations presented him with, and instead came up with a new way (like when he taught on paying taxes to Caesar).  I say a few, because I honestly don’t get all the much feedback from folks, nor does our church have a mechanism set up to positively do this (as the spirituality of the congregation matures we’ll need to do this).

So, “Kingdom Collision” is over, and it was personally fulfilling but kinda fell short in the congregation due to some of my own shortcomings.  At least the material is archived, maybe I can make a Bible Study series out of it for the future….