Fanning the flames of the spirit without burning down the church: preaching that is invitational and not confrontational

In this paper the author describes how he used a combination of John McClure's "collaborative" approach to preaching, Lucy Atkinson Rose's concept of "conversational preaching" and Marcia Riggs' understanding of what it means for a preacher to be a "religious ethical mediator" in order to preach a series of invitational sermons aimed at opening the way for the Holy Spirit to lead an English speaking, Anglo congregation located in a predominantly Spanish speaking, Hispanic neighborhood into a discussion of how they could be faithful in their ministry as God's people.