Flying pastor wasn’t the first to get creative
Sermons have gone viral before. Just this year, a Nashville megachurch used a cougar, lion, mountain lion, ram and miniature ponies in a sermon — garnering widespread attention and outrage from PETA.
In 2013, a pastor in Ohio rode a wild horse in an event called “Conquer the Beast.”
And in Memphis, a pastor at World Overcomers once drew online attention when he placed a bed in the front of the sanctuary and was joined by his wife in a robe for a sermon on marital sex.
So Rev. Bartholomew Orr may be the first pastor to fly down from church rafters to deliver a Sunday sermon, but he’s far from the first to use quirky props and stunts to deliver a message.
Today, the dynamic has changed as cell phones and social media have allowed unusual sermons to go viral. This week, videos of Orr garnered millions of views on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Andre E. Johnson, assistant professor of communication at the University of Memphis, said churches are increasingly using social media. Even if they don’t use Facebook or YouTube in an official context, a church member can easily capture a unique illustration and put it online.
“Pastors have been using sermon illustrations, what we call object lesson sermon illustrations for a long, long time, even before the advent of social media and live streaming,” Johnson said. “Maybe some now will do it to try to get clicks, but it’s more than that, it’s all about trying to preach the Gospel and make the illustrations stick in the head of the people.”
Orr said he didn’t expect the stunt to go viral, but that it provided an opportunity for “digital discipleship,” a chance to reach people outside of church walls.
“We literally do mission work right from our phone,” Orr said. “The Lord has brought the world right to us.”
“Creative preaching” has been in use since the Old Testament, said the Rev. Brian Carmichael, a Memphis pastor who did his dissertation on the subject.
Carmichael, who pastors Holy Temple Missionary Baptist, said creative preaching is based in the fact that people can be tactile, visual or auditory learners.
“God has made all of us diverse and we’re all different,” Carmichael said. “What we’ve found is when you start to combine all these things together, it greatly increases whether people remember what you’re communicating.”
In one sermon, Carmichael brought in different kinds of soap to illustrate that God washes people clean. Another time, he dressed up like the prophet Ezekiel — who the Old Testament says once made a model city and laid only on one side to get across a message.
Orr has also used creative methods before Sunday’s flight. Once, he dressed like a police officer. Another time, he climbed a ladder for a sermon on “stepping up in faith.” In yet another sermon, he had people build walls around him using cinder blocks.
“The message was about prejudice and how sometimes people can be prejudiced, so how do we build these walls, how do we tear down these walls?” Orr said. “After tearing down the walls, how do we use those same blocks to build bridges to reach each other?”
In Memphis, at least one pastor garnered widespread attention without social media when he rode a horse up the aisle of his church in the 1990s.
The Rev. Jimmy Latimer, pastor of Redeemer Evangelical Church, said he isn’t sure whether dressing in coattails and riding a horse in a silver-studded saddle into a church would go viral these days, but that it was a fun way to mark Central Church’s 100th anniversary by dressing and riding as people had when the church was founded.
“People are attracted to stuff that’s a little unusual,” Latimer said. “Can’t do it every Sunday, but that worked out very well for us. It was an occasion to do that.”
Meredith Gould, a church communications expert, said there’s a distinction between clergy who try to go viral and those who say, “OK, let’s look at the tools that are available and use them wisely and well to get our message across.”
When a pastor does unintentionally go viral, it can illustrate how digital tools extend the reach for ministry, Gould said.
Often, though, she believes pastors may not have deep theological reasons to fly to the pulpit or bring in a funny sermon prop.
“I think ‘Gee, this looks fun’ is perfectly valid,” Gould said. “I don’t think you need a real strong theological reason to do this stuff.”
Katherine Burgess covers county government and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.