July 6th we finished up our third week of on-campus studies. Here's a bit about the ACTS DMin Preaching Program. My on-campus classes take place in Chicago at the Lutheran School of Theology and McCormick Theological Seminary in Hyde Park. The program is named ACTS – the Association of Chicago Theological Schools consisting of: Chicago Theological School; Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary; Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; McCormick Theological Seminary; North Park Theological Seminary; Northern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.
We are blessed to have many good, and nationally renowned professors, lecturers and preachers teaching our classes such as Thomas Long (Candler School of Theology); Frank A Thomas (Memphis TN); Anna Carter Florence (Columbia Theological Seminary); Charles Rice with the Episcopal Diocese of Newark…
My second week elective class was ”Preaching the Good News from Difficult Text”. We find a text that is particularly difficult for the context of the congregation and preach it. Sounds simple, but much more difficult than I thought it would be! Our class size was such that we did not have an opportunity to preach in class like originally planned.
My third week class (called Colloquy I) was a summary of learning good preaching skills, techniques, delivery… and we all got an opportunity to preach. What a wonderful experience!
The classes began at 8:30am – and finished at 5:00pm with several evening lectures taking place throughout the week(s). Over this next year I will be working on three sermons (preached to my congregation on Sunday morning) using specific techniques learned at school. I will also be working with a group of congregation members (Pastoral Preaching Group – PPG) to help develop these sermons and provide feedback after delivery. I’ve entitled my first year project, “Preaching as an Evangelistic Tool”.
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