A book published last month by Westminster John Knox Press, “Fractured Ground: Preaching in the Wake of Mass Trauma,” offers help to preachers and community leaders who are called to speak and respond to mass trauma.
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.
Many preachers get a little antsy about preaching on and around secular holidays, among them the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Mother’s Day — and that biggest secular holiday of all, Super Bowl Sunday. In their minds, the culture and the church ought to be kept at arm’s length from one another.
If you think congregants are busy during Advent and Christmas, consider your preacher, who, as the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick quipped on Wednesday, quoting a friend, must be, during the few hours between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, Billy Graham, Martha Stewart and Santa Claus rolled into one.
Dr. Tom Long was in an airport terminal last Saturday when this announcement got everyone’s attention: Please observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. to remember the people killed in the 9/11 attacks 20 years before.
Their place at the pulpit offers Presbyterian preachers a weekly opportunity to persuade parishioners of the power and reach of God’s love for them — as well as hundreds of other messages found in Scripture.
In what is believed to be a first, “Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching, and the Arts” a quarterly journal produced by the Office of Theology & Worship, has focused an entire issue on poverty.
The Rev. Dr. Ted A. Smith, Professor of Preaching and Ethics in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, presented the fourth and final 2021 Sprunt Lecture Wednesday, hosted by Union Presbyterian Seminary. The final virtual lecture was followed by a Q&A session on the overall lecture theme “No Longer Shall they Teach One Another: The End of Theological Education.”
The Rev. Kamal Hassan used a cartoon to open his turn to lead Saturday’s edition of The Preaching Lab, a five-part online workshop offered by New Hope Presbyterian Church in Anaheim, California.
In what can be the steep learning curve of creating meaningful online worship services, what pastor or worship leader would look askance at tips on making sermon preparation and preaching less stressful?
