DULL. DOGMATIC. DEMANDING.
If you’ve ever had someone tell you “good job” after a sermon, then that sermon wasn’t very good. “Good job” means they don’t remember anything you said. “Good job” means they like you (which is good!), but your sermon had zero impact on their life, on the way they think, and on the way they live.
We need something better than doing a “good job.”
Preaching, sadly, has become DULL, DOGMATIC, and DEMANDING.
It’s DULL because most preachers have only a piecemeal understanding of what a great sermon entails. They possess only fragmentary knowledge of how to lead during a sermon, how to inspire with a sermon, or how to craft a sermon so the experience is both memorable and meaningful. Focusing on “what they’re going to say” leads many preachers to say much that is entirely forgettable, satisfying only their need to do “a good job”.
It’s DOGMATIC because our default message is moralistic (sin less! do more!), and therefore meaningless to people in pain, people with doubts, and people who are eager to uncover the depths of Christian spirituality.
Nevertheless, preaching is DEMANDING. As a rule of thumb, it requires one hour of preparation for every minute of preaching. So, preachers spend most of their work week agonizing over commentaries and wordsmithing phrases, stumbling through lectionaries and testing out their material on well-meaning (but ultimately useless) coworkers, family members, and soon-to-be former friends.
This course provides a holistic framework for how to lead churches and individuals into radical transformation, faithfulness, and mission. You’ll learn everything about the basics of being a great preacher—from preparing yourself to preparing the material, crafting the message and the delivery AND the missiological endeavors that make preaching matter to the community. You’ll learn about sermons, special events, series, and the basics of leading a design team to ensure your messages inspire, delight, and satisfy your people. Your preaching will dramatically improve and you will become confident, well-reasoned, and in command of your resources.
Right now, you may think of yourself as a good speaker. But, with apologies to TED and Comedy Central, there’s something far better than being funny, cute, or up on the latest research. Preachers know their people, know the pain of their community, and can transform that pain into meaningful, forward-looking, faith. This course will help you get past the cool-youth-pastor stage of development, leading you to become a prophetic professional, accurately bringing scripture to bear with the challenges of our times. You will lead your church into clarity culturally, personally, and relationally.
Best of all…you’ll have fun!
Example Curriculum
- Scope and Sequence
- The Taxonomy of Homiletics
- Working with a Design Team
- How to Design Series that Engage Culture
- Designing Artifacts to Engage the Church
- Media Design for a Sermon Series
- Music & Aesthetic Design for a Sermon Series
- A Manifesto on Sacerdotal Design
- Maximizing Homiletical Effort
- Rhyming with Age & Stage Ministries
- Your Assignment
Funny. Furious.
Full of holy enthusiasm.
Decades as a megachurch pastor leading one of America’s pre-eminent creative churches has given David the tools to preach with biblical integrity, cultural cache, and personal warmth. He has taught preaching in seminaries all over the world, most notably with Leonard Sweet in the Doctor of Ministry program at Portland Seminary where David was a post-doctoral fellow specializing in homiletics. Currently, David leads the Fossores Chapter House, the international headquarters for creatives in Christian ministry.
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