Exposing people to the mystery of the Holy Spirit through an experience of child baptism. The vehicle that is studied is the mystagogical sermon and the preacher. The before and after studies of one single sermon with two different groups of listeners. This is repeated three times.
What I have done: Sixty-four interviews were conducted in connection to four main Sunday services that included baptism of infants. Thirty-six of the interviewed people were family and friends of the infant to be baptised. Only adults were interviewed. The rest were the Parish project group and the others that are active in the life of the congregation. In three of the services I preached in a mystagogical manner and the fourth sermon was to be a sermon on social transformation. In all four sermons I used symbolic action during the sermons.
What I have learned: I have felt a great desire to preach during my eighteen years in ministry, although the last year has by far been the best. I have to ask if the positive reactions to the mystagogical sermons is due to the effect of this type of sermon or to the fact that I was filled with more joy and energy than usual during these sermons. The results are probably a combination of the mystagogical sermons and the inspiration I felt. But I do think that mystagogical preaching is a good way of reaching postmodern people who not only need information but seek experiences of the heart. This type of sermon seems to work both for the listeners who are regular churchgoers and the people who attend more seldom. It is useful to use symbolic actions during the mystagogical sermon. Mystagogy is a sermon of many word-pictures both from the Bible and the natural life. Symbolic actions are abstract pictures transformed into symbolic action.