You are at church on a Sunday morning. After some worship, announcements and the reading it’s time for the center piece of the service—the sermon.
The pastor stays glued to the pulpit and delivers a three-point sermon with many theological explanations that go straight over your head. You find it difficult to follow the talk because most seems theoretical and otherworldly. As a matter of fact, there isn’t really anything new that you haven’t heard before. You wonder if you have become immune to the pastor’s preaching—or is it actually teaching—, partly because you were almost able to predict what he was going to say. You leave church uninspired and unchallenged and start to question your walk with Jesus. The following day you cannot remember anything from the sermon.
Three weeks later a guest preacher delivers a very different message. She – o yes, a woman – moves around and interactively focusses on one point that she brings home with plenty of stories, illustrations, video clips and humor. In addition, she makes herself vulnerable by sharing personal struggles. She comes across as authentic with a desire for you to engage with the topic. At the same time, you are convinced that she is neither compromising Biblical truths nor watering down the Gospel. You feel challenged by her message and respond to it by making necessary changes. You can remember the stories even months later.
Our Homiletics course has been updated recently to ensure that students learn how to preach meaningfully and relevantly to our postmodern society whilst proclaiming sound doctrine.
Dr. Jörg Strate