WEMTCCourses

R16 Preaching Weekend

Contents:
Preaching Weekend

What is this Weekend all about?
Useful resources for Preaching
The Student Spot
R16 Programme

Resources Addition Form
Contributions to this page

Welcome to the R16 Preaching Weekend web page. This page is designed to provide useful resources relating to topics covered in R16 with WEMTC. If you have found useful resources or have questions you would like ask, please do contribute.

What is this Weekend all about?

This weekend introduces current issues in the practice and theory of Homiletics. The strengths and weaknesses of different Homiletic styles will be considered and there will be an opportunity to try new styles and refine your own preaching style. It assumes that students have had some experience in preaching. Click here for:

Useful resources for R16

Books

The following are indicative books for this weekend:

Buttrick D. A Captive Voice: The Liberation of Preaching John Knox 1994
Chadwick C and Tovey P Developing Reflective Practice for Preachers Grove Booklets: Cambridge 2001
Craddock F. As One without Authority revised edition Chalice Press Missouri 2001
Elliot M B Creative Styles of Preaching John Knox: Kentucky 2000
Eslinger R, The Web of Preaching: New Options in Homiletic Method Nashville, Abingdon 2002
Lowry E. How to Preach a Parable: Designs for Narrative Sermons Abingdon Press: Nashville 1989
Steele D The Next Voice You Hear: Sermons We Preach Together Geneva Press: Kentucky 1999
Thomson J. Preaching as Dialogue: Is the Sermon a Sacred Cow? Pastoral Series 68 Grove Booklets: Cambridge 1996

For more detailed bibliographies see our Preaching Booklists.
Why not tell us of some books you have found useful? If the webmaster agrees we'll list them here.

R16 Preaching Web Resources

You may find the following web sites helpful for Preaching. Material on the net has no quality control making tutors very wary - and rightly so! Nevertheless there is a growing amount of first class work on line particularly coming from Religious Studies Departments of good Universities. Treat with care and you'll find it very useful.

The Internet is not 100% reliable and documents move, disappear and change their names. If you find a link does not work, try again in an hour, a day, or a week. But do feel free to email us to report a link doesn't work. Don't forget to tell us the name of the link!

Preaching Generally

College of Preachers: The College of Preachers website - lists up coming conferences, links and details of courses in Preaching that can be taken by distance learning. The are worth belonging to for their Journal
Preaching.org by Kenton Anderson: Anderson teaches preaching at ACTS Seminaries Trinity Western University Canada, and is interested in preaching in the contemporary culture. The site includes quality notes on how to preach, why preach and different styles of preaching. There is an evangelical undercurrent but all should find things to ponder if not agree with.

How to Preach Better

The Heresy of Application: Leading preacher Haddon Robinson discusses in Christianity Today the pitfalls preachers face in moving from passage to application.
International Storytelling Centre: A secular web site on the art of storytelling with adults. See e.g. The six stories you need to know how to tell
Post Modern Preaching: Some perceptive insights into preaching in the post modern world. Again evangelical in view but this writer also has considerable experience of Middle Eastern Orthodoxy.

Online Sermon Aids
If you are going to use other's sermons then read this article on Using Other's Sermons for ethical guidelines

Church Times Sunday Readings: The Church Times has a weekly reflection on the Sunday Readings. Its available from midday Tuesday in the Faith section of the website.
Preaching Magazine Online: An online magazine based on the paper version Preaching with articles on better preaching and sermon outlines. Some info is free, full access is by subscription.
Preaching Today Sermons: An offshoot of Christianity Today this site contains many thematic sermons. Look out for the big names such as Fred Craddock, Eugene Lowry, John Stott, Will Willimon and Gardner Taylor. You have to pay a nominal sum to see the full script.
Links to online sermons: The web is full of sermons, unfortunately quality and quantity have no correlation. If you are really desperate this site will launch you into finding sermons for the lectionary year and special events.
100+ Links for Preachers: Links Page on Preaching from the American Catholic Magazine Ministry and Liturgy.

Exploring the Bible Passage

TM102.5 First Testament and TM103.5 New Testament: See our Biblical web resources for more detailed listing of bible related sites.
CCEL Worldwide Study Bible: Gives links to bible versions and commentaries (usually older and copyright free)for each book and chapter of the bible
Gospelcom's Bible Gateway: If you don't have your own bible search software this site lets you search and print for particular search words or verses in a variety of versions - also useful for comparing bible versions
Crosswalk's Bible Study Tools: Similar to the above, you can see various bibles, commentaries, concordances, dictionaries but also includes Hebrew and Greek.
Bible.org's Bible Commentaries: Contains a growing set of online commentaries on the OT books by a variety of authors. Fairly conservative but engaging with academic subjects and the major scholars. Look around the home page for other useful articles.
Rutger's Virtual Religion Index: Rutger University's list of Religious links - mostly to academic quality websites.
Hivolda University links: Lots of good links to English material of reasonable quality.
Birmingham's New Testament Gateway: A list of links to good scholarly and academic works on the NT created and maintained by a NT lecturer from Birmingham University
Textweek's Commentaries: A labour of love by Jenee Woodard. Textweek is designed to provide resources related to the Common Lectionary readings.

The Common Lectionary

American Common Lectionary: Revised Common Lectionary in the American version with readings from NRSV from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library
Textweek's Commentaries: A labour of love by Jenee Woodard. Textweek is designed to provide resources related to the Common Lectionary readings.
Bill Loader's lectionary commentaries: Bill Loader of Murdoch University Australia has written a commentary on the lectionary gospel readings that could be helpful for preaching and some interesting reflective writings that might inspire a meditation or narrative sermon
Worship and Liturgy: See also resources under the Liturgy module for websites more related to worship and services

See the general religion links as a starting point for your own searching

Why not tell us of some sites you have found useful? If the webmaster agrees we'll list them here.

The Student Spot

This spot is for contributions from those who are doing or have done r16. It needs your contributions - books that have been helpful, questions you would like answered, adverts for things related to the module etc. Content is monitored by the webmaster with reference to the tutors and class reps if necessary. Click here to submit something for the page.

Go ahead - be the first to submit something

A sample R16 Weekend Programme

Please note that programmes are constantly being revised and the actual content of your weekend may look rather different.

Introduction to the Weekend

Preparation

Please read the attached booklet and do the preparation listed therein.

Programme

Friday
6:30 Arrive
7:00 Dinner
8:00 Session 1 - There are Sermons and sermons! sharing our preparation work
9:30 Night Prayer

Saturday
8:00 Worship
8:30 Breakfast
9:15 Session 2 Preaching to a Modern Congregation
Sermon Styles of the Twentieth Century
10:45 Coffee Break
11:15 Session 3: Preaching to a Post-Modern Congregation
More recent Sermon Styles
1:00 Lunch
2:00 Free
4:15 Session 4 Telling the Old Old Story
Story-telling within the Sermon
6:00 Worship
6:30 Dinner
7:30 Session 5 So What?
Trying it Out

Sunday
8:30 Breakfast
9:15 Notices
9:30 Session 6 - The Sacraments
11:00 Coffee
11:30 Worship
1:00 Lunch

Resources Addition Form

Sorry due to concerted spam attacks we have unfortunately had to remove our online forms Please email the webmaster with your request (webmaster @ the wemtc address)

Contribution to this Page

Sorry due to concerted spam attacks we have unfortunately had to remove our forms Please email the webmaster with your contribution (webmaster @ the wemtc address)

The Full Module Description for R16 Homiletics

Code and title

R16 Homiletics Weekend

Brief description

Level and Credits

Contributes to C101 Ministerial Competence or V101 Vocational Discernment

Status

Core for Ordinands

Type

Standard

Prerequisites

TM212.5 The Word in Worship: Preaching

Recommended prior study

S2 Introduction to Preaching

Restrictions

Open to Ordinands and Methodist Foundation Students only

Content summary

This weekend will cover:

The Principles of the New Homiletic, its main proponents and its critique of other Homiletic styles
The main varieties of preaching style in existence and their underlying theological and cultural assumptions (e.g. expository, narrative, dialogue, liberal apologetic, pastoral, evangelistic, all age, homily etc.) including analysis of examples.
Practical exercises in developing a variety of preaching styles and broadening participant's repertoire.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this weekend students should:

a) Knowledge and Understanding

Be aware of the principles of the New Homiletics and its main strands.
Have been exposed to a variety of different styles of sermon with critique.

b) Skills

Be able to draft a sermon in a style other than their normal preaching style
Have grown in confidence and ability
Be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their preferred preaching style and its place within the homiletic styles
Be able to choose an appropriate style in any given sermon context

Teaching and learning

15 hours
7 hours class contact
3 hours personal study (prior reading, self reflection, discussion in Formation Groups and with Tutor)

Assessment

A self-reflection exercise in prescribed format

Indicative resources

Buttrick D. A Captive Voice: The Liberation of Preaching John Knox 1994
Chadwick C and Tovey P Developing Reflective Practice for Preachers Grove Booklets: Cambridge 2001
Craddock F. As One without Authority revised edition Chalice Press Missouri 2001
Elliot M B Creative Styles of Preaching John Knox: Kentucky 2000
Eslinger R, The Web of Preaching: New Options in Homiletic Method Nashville, Abingdon 2002
Lowry E. How to Preach a Parable: Designs for Narrative Sermons Abingdon Press: Nashville 1989
Steele D The Next Voice You Hear: Sermons We Preach Together Geneva Press: Kentucky 1999
Thomson J. Preaching as Dialogue: Is the Sermon a Sacred Cow? Pastoral Series 68 Grove Booklets: Cambridge 1996

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