Fresh from preaching their way through Advent, preachers in the Synod of the Covenant turned their attention Wednesday to the next great season on the Christian calendar: Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday on Feb. 22.
With the goal to help preachers explore biblical texts rather than explain them during their sermons, the Rev. Dr. Sally A. Brown, the Elizabeth M. Engle Professor of Preaching and Worship Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary, was the guest recently on the Synod of the Covenant’s Equipping Preachers series. Watch Brown’s engaging talk, hosted by the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick, the synod executive, here.
The Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, Dean at the Chapel at Duke University and an associate professor at the Duke Divinity School, used the account of the Valley of Dry Bones found in Ezekiel 37:1-14 last week to remind preachers that sermons about resurrection must first encounter death in a real way.
For clergy and others called on to proclaim God’s word and organize meaningful worship during Advent and into Christmas Day — which falls on a Sunday this year — it may feel like Emmanuel can’t come soon enough.
With the goal to help preachers explore biblical texts rather than explain them during their sermons, the Rev. Dr. Sally A. Brown, the Elizabeth M. Engle Professor of Preaching and Worship Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary, was the guest Wednesday on the Synod of the Covenant’s Equipping Preachers series.
On Wednesday, the Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner offered up the Rx that pastors preaching and leading congregations might well need the most during this time of trauma: practical advice from someone who’s been there, and who’s clearly researched and thought deeply about what trauma can do to individuals and faith communities.
Each day about 300 million images are uploaded for public consumption. Choosing just the right image to use with Sunday’s sermon is an important task for any preacher. Just why that is — and what considerations ought to go into selecting and describing that image — was the subject of Wednesday’s Equipping Preachers webinar put on each month by the Synod of the Covenant.
The Rev. Dr. Jake Myers’ recently-completed book, “Stand-Up Preaching: Homiletical Insights from Contemporary Comedians,” will be published in late summer or early fall. Those who attended the Synod of the Covenant’s Equipping Preachers webinar on Wednesday got a sneak preview of how humor can work well, even when it’s delivered from behind the pulpit.
Wanting to impress on the preachers in his Zoom audience the importance of garnering helpful listener feedback following their sermons, the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick recently offered up the words of a very popular preacher from back in the day: Jesus himself.
Each week, preachers make their way to the pulpit — whether wooden or virtual — to deliver a sermon to congregants living in a nation that’s increasingly polarized.
