Preaching Workshop 2

After 6 more glasses of Upstate Farm Chocolate Milk, I'm toward the end of the 2nd Day of the preaching workshop. It was nice to eat breakfast for a change. I truly love breakfast foods and it's sad that I never see these hours. After breakfast I sat in on a textual workshop led by Kulli Toniste. She focused on the parable of the wicked tenants. I connected with her love for Scripture and approach to interpreting parables (this topic was still fairly fresh in my mind from my 17 week series on the parables).

In the afternoon I attended another textual workshop, this time led by Kelvin Friebel whom I had previously encountered at BBC when he taught Ezekiel. On this occasion he was utlizing Genesis 22 when God tested Abraham as an example of how to build an Old Testament narrative sermon. He warned against inappropriate typologizing, filling in of narrative gaps, and/or taking verses out of context. I enjoyed some back and forth discussion with him near the end of class.

In the evening the panel of faculty opened up to questions from the floor. We asked about using multi-media, how to increase application, use of personal stories, where to find illustrations, how to evaluate your preaching, different styles of preaching, length of sermons, comparison with other preachers, etc. Their answers and the group discussion were insightful. All in all I was pretty happy with the day. And my internet is working again so all is well in the world (cept, of course, for all that bad stuff).