Four-Day Morning Workshops

Choose one four-day morning workshop meeting
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Shauna Hannan

The Peoples’ Sermon: Preaching as a Ministry of the Whole Congregation

Preaching is an ecclesial practice that belongs to the whole congregation and not only to the preacher. This workshop aims to equip you to equip all the baptized to fulfill their roles as proclaimers of God’s good news. Understanding and engaging the collaborative nature of preaching will revive your preaching and your congregation’s participation. Participants will leave with concrete possibilities for engaging a collaborative preaching ministry in their own contexts. – Shauna Hannan

Matthew Kim

Preaching to People in Pain: How Suffering Can Shape Your Sermons and Connect with Your Congregation 

People in the pews are hurting. If we’re honest, preachers are hurting, too. The problem is that we often don’t take the time to consider what this means for the preaching task to minister through our brokenness to hurting listeners. This workshop encourages participants to wed the preaching task with their pastoral responsibilities more intentionally. You will leave this workshop with hands-on homiletical skills to begin engaging in this important work on preaching to people who are experiencing various forms of pain, including the preachers themselves. – Matthew Kim

Courtney Buggs

Womanist Preaching

This workshop invites participants to a basic understanding of womanism as theological method and discourse that informs a liberative approach to preaching. Participants will explore course concepts in womanist theology, ethics, and biblical interpretation, as functions of womanist preaching, with the intent of inspiring preaching that offers life and hope to all creation.  Participants will examine how they might incorporate womanist inquiry into their established preaching practices. – Courtney Buggs

Adam Hearlson

Creativity and the Demands of Ministry

The creative pace of ministry is exhausting. Ministers who preach regularly are expected to produce polished creative work at a pace that would trouble even the most prolific artist. Ministers who preach weekly will create the equivalent of a single book over the course of a year. Without practice, good habits and a community of practice, burnout is inevitable. In this workshop, we will discuss recent ideas of creativity and how we can create habits and postures to support the creative demands of a preaching ministry. – Adam Hearlson

Two-Day Afternoon Workshops

You may choose two afternoon workshops — one that meets Monday/Tuesday and another that meets Wednesday/Thursday. Be sure to select two different afternoon workshops.
Monday/Tuesday, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Wednesday/Thursday, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Shauna Hannan

Behind the Scenes: What Preachers Can Learn From Filmmakers

From “blue skying” in the writer’s room to effective scene changes, and from impact teams to zooming in on a character in order to evoke emotion, the craft of filmmaking has much to offer the craft of preaching. The focus of this two-day workshop will not be on religious cinema or films with theological themes, but on cinematic craft behind-the-scenes. Participants will leave with concrete ideas for honing their “behind the scenes” sermon preparation work. – Shauna Hannan

Matthew Kim

Preaching to a Divided Nation: A Seven-Step Model for Promoting Reconciliation and Unity

People are divided in the United States and across the globe. Tragically, people in our congregations are similarly split over many different issues: large and small. In this time of great division and polarization, this workshop seeks to facilitate the process of reconciliation and unity through the preached Word. You will receive seven concrete steps to consider when preaching on difficult topics and texts regarding classism, ethnocentrism, sexism, and political partisanship-ism. – Matthew Kim

Courtney Buggs

A Preaching Life, Not A Preaching Moment

This workshop explores the practice of sermon preparation by examining the everydayness of the preacher’s life and the person of the preacher.  It is specifically designed for those who do not preach every Sunday and do not benefit from the every week preaching habit.  The workshop reviews fundamentals of sermon preparation, and builds upon those skills, exploring how preachers can engage in practices for ongoing development of their preaching voice. Workshop participants will discuss internal hindrances to preaching, devise steps to mitigate those hindrances, and work together to develop tools to aid in a preaching life. – Courtney Buggs

David Latimore

Power of Perspectival Preaching

Using the Lazarus narrative of John 11, this workshop examines the homiletical opportunities presented by perspective criticism of biblical texts. The workshop will ask the question: How do the homiletical possibilities of a text shift depending on the perspective considered? The workshop will consider both the intended perspective of the author of the text and other perspectives found within the characters of the narrative. Finally, the workshop will offer participants an opportunity to consider how perspective criticism offers a place for the experiences of the homiletician to shape homiletical moment within the context of the biblical narrative. – David Latimore