Dwight A. Moody

National Geographic cable channel recently aired a program entitled “Pint Size Preachers.” Here is the link. It is both spell-binding and disturbing.

Perhaps that 50-minute video inspired the studio in Hollywood who contacted us last week seeking names and addresses of other pint size preachers.  I did not respond.

Eighteen months ago we were approached by another production company wanting to do a reality show with high school preachers. I engaged in a month-long email dialogue, during which I fielded warnings from key colleagues and watched last year’s reality show about Amish: Breaking Amish. Frankly, I thought that show did a good job of reflecting reality and making it interesting.

But pint size preachers?  One colleague wrote: “Not the pond we want to swim in.” I agree; but at the same time, I am fascinated by child prodigies, especially in the arts. Jesus, I am convinced, was a child prodigy as have been many of the famous pianists and composers. Some mimicked their musically talented parents and started playing musical instruments at a very early age. Van Cliburn testifies that his call to be a classical pianist happened at age five!

There is much evidence that many young people think seriously about their life work beginning at adolescence, about age 12. Their dreams at that age of making movies, fighting fires, teaching children, discovering cures, playing ball, planting corn, programming computers, singing songs, and yes, preaching gospel are very real and powerful.

Not all vocation visions last through college into the job search; but many do. Such dreams at this age cease being primarily about parental influence and begin to flow directly from the soul and imagination of the young person.

Which is why we seek to identify young people as early as 14 think of preaching the gospel as a vocation. I was 15 when the idea stirred my imagination. I am suspicious of three-year-old preachers; but when a 16-something kid signs up to preach at a regional or national festival I take it very seriously. It is part of our mission to “identify, network, support, and inspire young people in their call to gospel preaching.”

I am reproducing here an article distributed by the Alban Institute. The text is taken from a new book the Alban Institute has just published entitled Preaching That Matters: Reflective Practices for Transforming Sermons. The book is written by Dr. Lori J. Carrell, who is Distinguished Professor Communication at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. Dr. Carrell is also a friend of mine and a member of the core leadership team at the Academy of Preachers. She attends our National Festival of Young Preachers where she has been both a featured speaker and a workshop leader; she designs and administers the tools we use to assess our festivals and their impact on the Young Preachers. Dr. Carrell is committed to the mission and programs of the Academy of Preachers and sees them as a powerful antidote to the growing indifference to preaching in the church and among ministers.

Now these words from Dr. Carrell:

“Thousands of listeners from across the United States can contribute to your thinking about the potential value of preaching. These adult listeners attend all kinds of churches—tiny and mega, but mostly medium; healthy and troubled; mainline, evangelical, Catholic, and community. Their responses have been gathered through multiple studies.

“Fifty-four pastors will arrive at the Center for Excellence in Ministry in a few months, ready to hear feedback from their listeners. Their parishioners have recorded responses to recent sermons through ten-question surveys. If these new listener-respondents are like the thousands surveyed previously, they do not usually provide their preachers with feedback.

“More than 78 percent of listeners say that they have “never” discussed a sermon with their preachers, so how could you possibly know what your listeners are thinking?I am writing to share compiled results of listeners’ responses about the value of your preaching, to apologize for our previous silence, and to set the record straight. Pastor, here’s why we listen and why your preaching matters to us.

We Listen to Your Preaching Expecting Inspiration

“When asked to list the elements of the church service “most likely to have an impact on my spiritual journey,” the number one answer from listeners was “the sermon.” Preachers did not predict their listeners would answer that way! Said a listener from a coastal state, “I like good music and my church friends, but I come on Sunday hoping for inspiration from the sermon, inspiration to encourage my spiritual growth.”

“When asked to give advice to pastors, another wrote, “Recognize the power of your words.” The role of inspiration in preaching is often overlooked by pastors who may be focusing on explanation and exposition. Please hear the affirmation of your role as a leader of a community of Christ-followers who are seeking spiritual growth through the inspiration present in your preaching. Perhaps you thought their silence suggested they were not responding. Think again.

We Look to Your Preaching for Spiritual Leadership

“We can download daily devotionals and upload viral videos, but where do we gather to hear a community leader speak with us about important issues? In the United States, in 2013, that place is still the church. One listener admits, “I can get better presentation from television preaching, but I want to hear this person I know, this person who knows me, this leader in our community of believers. . . . I really believe God speaks through the pastor to us.”

“Though some analysts predict that a few podcasting superpreachers will soon proclaim to a great global pew, right now most Christ-followers are seeking spiritual direction from the public spoken words of their pastors. Your physical presence in the congregation creates the opportunity for relationship with the listening community. The credibility emerging from that relational connection is a critical contributor to the potential power of your preaching. Listeners expect spiritual direction from your preaching.

We Rely on Your Preaching for Spiritual Content

“Preaching is unique among sources of advice. Listeners are clear that they want biblically based content in sermons. One dissatisfied listener complained, “At our church, we’re encouraged to be nice, be kind, have a positive attitude. How is that different from everybody else? What does it have to do with the Bible or God?”

“In less than the split second it took to push the Enter key just now, a Web search for spiritual growth help provided 52,800,000 links for me to browse. And yet, listeners find unique value in sermon content. They keep coming back to church. Why? They are seeking spiritual content from your preaching; quite specifically, they want to hear from God.

“If you are a preacher who sometimes wonders what parishioners are expecting, please hear this crucial response from your previously silent listeners: We are listening to you for spiritual content, which we have determined is a priority for us, listening to hear God’s voice through you, listening for something we don’t hear or view or download anywhere else.

We Listen to Your Preaching Expecting Long-Lasting Impact

“Even listeners who say a particular sermon merely reminded them of something they already knew resolve to “think about” the content during the week. Now that’s determination! Listener optimism about the value of preaching is reflected in another significant response: a vast majority of the thirty thousand plus listeners participating in this research thus far anticipate that sermons—regardless of topic or preacher—are likely to affect their spiritual journeys “in lasting ways.”

“Even when the pastor hasn’t used inspirational language, hasn’t included ideas for implementation, or hasn’t even asked for change, listeners are still committed to contemplating the content, because they perceive there is potential for spiritual growth to occur. And many who didn’t find content that might lead to spiritual life-change this week still say, “I am motivated to come back to hear more sermons.”

“We listeners crave your spiritual leadership. Overwhelmed? Doubting your impact? God has a well-established pattern of calling inadequate people to monumental tasks, speaking through them in spite of their deficiencies or failures. I heard one of you preach about that just last Sunday.

“Believing in the potential power of your preaching can begin a radical transformation process. Yes, attention spans are short. Yes, biblical literacy is lower than it used to be.Yes, solidified deposits of individualism and materialism may be barriers to your preaching about New Testament Christ-following communities. But preaching can make a difference. A significant difference. And it’s not just your listeners who have such grand expectations for the impact of preaching. The Message paraphrase of 1 Corinthians1:21 puts it like this:

“Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.

Preaching Matters

“Affirming that preaching matters is itself transformational. If you actually believe that those minutes you will spend communicating with your congregation next Sunday have the potential to change lives, you may approach the pulpit and your prayer life and your sermon preparation a little differently from the way you did last week, when you wondered if those spoken words of yours were evaporating. Preaching, and all related tasks, may move up on your priority list.

“The spoken act of preaching remains the predominant mode of communicating God’s Word to God’s people. Next weekend, next month, and probably next year, you will continue to speak face to face with believers who want to grow spiritually. As a person called to a spiritual leadership role, your commitments to studying Scripture and deepening your faith are both critical to pending transformation in your congregations and communities. What else is needed?

“In a recent address to academics who study learning, Georgetown University’s Associate Provost for Institutional Renewal Randy Bass provided a challenge appropriate for both scholars and preachers. He described a visit to the Cape Cod ceramics studio of acclaimed potter Joan Lederman. Joan began decades ago to work with mud discarded from an oceanography institute in her Woods Hole, Massachusetts, community. As Randy (carefully!) examined a piece of her pottery created with sediment from the floors of all seven oceans, he asked her to describe how she deepens her learning, continuing to grow as an artist. Working at her wheel, Joan described a moment-by-moment, heightened awareness of how the mud responds to her touch. That encounter inspired Bass to embrace a similar scrutiny for his work, and to declare that intense inspection of what we do as we do it is necessary for deep learning.

“For as long as you continue to speak for God publicly—to preach or teach or proclaim—a close, authentic examination of your sermon communication through reflective practice is needed. Challenge yourself, prayerfully—for your calling to preach is high and holy.”
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This article is excerpted and adapted from Preaching that Matters: Reflective Practices for Transforming Sermons by Lori J. Carrell. Copyright ©2013 by the Alban Institute. All rights reserved. This book will be for sale at all preaching events sponsored and managed by the Academy of Preachers.

By the time the festival rolls around (January 2-5, 2014) more than 40 other businesses, congregations, denominations, institutions and organizations will join this effort to sponsor one of the most amazing events in American Christianity.

Some will advertise/exhibit/sponsor in order to recruit students; others to sell products and services; some to showcase and support their own young preachers; and a few simply to endorse the work of the Academy of Preachers.

Forty of these advertisers will set up exhibits and actually talk with these Young Preachers (and their mentors, teachers, parents, and friends—attendance is expected to top 600 this year, not counting PREACHAPALOOZA).

Want to be a part of the fifth National Festival of Young Preachers?

You can register to attend, of course; and all aspects of the festival are free and open to the public. We do charge for food, of course; and we sell a room package of three nights and 4 meals for about $350: not bad for a first class hotel at the center of a city.

Here is the link to the National Festival registration.

You can sign on to advertise and/or exhibit at the National Festival; or you can agree to host or sponsor part of the Festival: a workshop, a dinner, a break, a reception, the Gospel Slam or even PREACHAPALOOZA, even a worship service. We are looking for sponsors that will help us plan, staff, and lead these plenary events at the 2014 National Festival of Young Preachers.

Here is the link to the National Festival advertising and sponsorship information.

Our gathering in Indianapolis promises to be an inspirational and transformational event. Plan to be there, to promote your own institution or products, to play a prominent and public role in making it happen, and to help us “identify, network, support, and inspire young people in their call to gospel preaching.”

Pittsburgh

Louisville, Nashville, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Dallas, New York, and Boston: these are a few of the places we have been to introduce the Academy of Preachers. But not Pittsburgh: and that is why I leave today of a four day road trip to the place we lived for nine wonderful years.

Allan is driving and I am riding, and reading, talking on the phone, and editing sermons from the 2013 National Festival of Young Preachers; and together we are taking our mission of “identifying, networking, supporting, and inspiring young people in their call to gospel preaching” to that wonderful community at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers.

We have appointments with key leaders at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Trinity School of Ministry, and Franciscan University in Steubenville (Ohio). We will meet students at all three schools (and perhaps a few more places along the way). We have breakfast plans with a young Roman Catholic youth minister and dinner plans with two couples, long time friends from our ministry days in the Steel City.

Our hope, of course, is to cultivate donors, partners, and young preachers, to entice some of all three to participate in our 2014 National Festival of Young Preachers, to assist at least one institution to host a campus festival or a gospel slam. Then after that, perhaps the Pittsburgh Regional Festival of Young Preachers!

New York and Texas are the sites of our regional festivals for 2013, and Boston and Nashville for 2014; and we are already thinking about Washington DC and Kansas City as sites for regional festivals in 2015. I hope to visit Kansas City again this fall.

In order to host a regional festival in a given city we need 5-10 Partners in the region. Partners are businesses, congregations, denominations, institutions or organizations that will write to us a letter of endorsement and agree to collaborate in some way to fulfill our mission as an organization. As of today, we have 111 Founding and National Partners…and not a one in Western Pennsylvania. I hope to change that this week!

Pray for us as we head into stormy winter weather, that it will be a pleasant and profitable trip.

The 2014 National Festival promises to be the best yet.  It will be our fifth National Festival and there will be some recognition of this milestone at the Festival. It will also feature:

• an expanded Gospel Slam which will showcase the best performers of our National Gospel Slam Challenge;
• a choral music conclave under the direction of Dr. Everett McCorvey and the American Spiritual Ensemble;
• a redesigned PREACHAPALOOZA in the Hilbert Circle Theater that will attract a capacity crowd of 1,500;
• a Festival Covenant Church strategy that will shower the Festival with prayer and place numerous Young Preachers in area pulpits on Sunday morning January 5.

But as always, the prime time and space will be given to the 116 young preachers who come from every corner of the country and from every stream of tradition in the wide river we call the Christian community.

The registration process requires that you pay a $75 deposit in order to reserve your preaching spot. Institutions and organizations may still reserve a block of preaching slots by paying this registration fee for as many preaching slots as needed.

Of course, the on-line registration includes the two Regional Festivals: the New York Regional Festival, September 27-28, in New York City (Union Seminary) and the Texas Regional Festival, October 4-5, in Waco, Texas (Truett Seminary). Each of these can accommodate up to 36 young preachers.

Our preaching theme for all three of these events (and for all of the campus and denominational festivals this year) is QUESTIONS OF THE SOUL. There is a page on this site that lists all the 52 biblical questions that offer outstanding texts for preaching.

It is going to be a good year for the Academy of Preachers!

As preachers, we may wish that a cheer section would randomly appear as we are preparing for our next sermon so that we feel encouraged to write down what we feel the Holy Spirit has led us to preach.  During delivery of that same sermon, we often rely on those in the congregation to give us nonverbal or verbal cues during the sermon so that we can be encouraged and know that everyone is paying attention.  Many times we also frequently rely on the encouragement and advice of our advisor as we head into a different season of our lives.

One great source of encouragement for me as a young preacher has been the network of fellow young preachers that I have connected with through both National Festivals I have attended in the past two years. This network of people provides an instant connection with people who have gone through similar experiences that I may be going through.  It also allows one the opportunity to encourage preachers that they would have never met if it weren’t for the National Festival of Young Preachers.

How have these networks been established?  Beyond intentional conversation, a great source of networking in my experience was the preaching circles.  Preaching circles are one of the most unique features of the National Festival of Young Preachers. Young preachers who have never met people their age with the same call to preach are astounded by stories they hear and the encouragement they receive from this group.  My most recent preaching circle experience is one that I can vividly remember.  It still encourages me today and gives me hope for my future in ministry.  Molly Shoulta, Alejandra Herreras, Corey Holmes, Dane Jones, Mitchell Monroe, Robert Woods, and Kathryn Garelli, along with our leader, Charmaine Webster, made up one of the most inspiring groups of people I have met thus far.   We lifted each other up in prayer, we were a presence during each other’s preaching sessions, we encouraged each other after each of us preached, and we took the time to become acquainted.

This group reminded me of all the people that the Holy Spirit has used to encourage me in my call to Gospel preaching – my family, close friends, church family at Pfrimmer’s Chapel and the United Methodist Church, and the staff and faculty at University of Evansville.  Without this “cheer section” of encouragers, I may have honestly jumped off the preaching boat long ago.  I can now add the Academy of Preachers to this list of inspiring encouragers in my life.  God has used the National Festival of Young Preachers to rejuvenate me and realign my focus to what I am called to do through all the incredible people that attend the event.

I challenge you to find young preachers that have potential and give them the encouragement they need to become confident in what God has called them to do.  Begin encouraging others that have not experienced a flood of encouragement to attend the National Festival of Young Preachers in Indianapolis!  Connect them with a “cheer section” of people they can relate to and an event that is sure to give them encouragement for their future in ministry.  Allow God to use you in this way!

“Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NRSV)

It’s been over a month since we all gathered in Atlanta, and I have to confess that I’m having a hard time reflecting on my experiences at that grace-filled gathering. At first, I thought the haze of time was keeping my thoughts from cohering into anything resembling an article. Or else it was surely the bustle of a new semester – new class, new professors, new obligations – that prevented my sitting down with my thoughts. But I think the reason I have been unable to reflect on the 2013 National Festival of Young Preachers runs deeper than any of these cursory reasons.

Largely, I think I have been unable to really reflect on this past festival for issues of geography. Allow me to explain. I moved to Atlanta in July, and unlike a number of “Atlantans,” I have an actual Atlanta address and I’m developing an abiding love for the things that happen inside the I-285 perimeter. The neighborhoods, parishes, restaurants, thrift stores, pubs, community centers, and coffee shops of Intown, Downtown, and Midtown mean more to me than they ever did when I was a suburbanite who only ventured into the big city for shows at the Fox or a Falcons game. Atlanta is rapidly becoming my city.

I know I’m not the only person in the world who loves this city, nor was I the only one at the Festival who loves this city, but I have a confession to make: I don’t think Buckhead is really a part of this city. Historically, the neighborhood was always a vacation spot for wealthy Atlantans. The few black areas that managed to spring up were razed in the 1940s. Nowadays, Buckhead is America’s ninth-wealthiest zip-code and houses the priciest real estate in the city, including the Georgia governor’s mansion. Its retail industry grosses over $1 billion annually – more than the GDP of a number of developing nations. Buckhead boasts not one but two Mobil 5-star restaurants. And its citizens are currently trying to secede from the city, ensuring that their tax revenue would continue to benefit only the wealthiest of Georgians.

And there we were, in the middle of all of it, living large in the Grand Hyatt and rubbing elbows with Tim Tebow (yup, he was staying with us while attending Passion). We preached from texts like Jeremiah 7, which proclaims that God will only dwell in Israel if Israel does not “oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow.” Or Isaiah 6, a declaration of “good news to the oppressed…liberty to the captives.” Or Luke 19, wherein Zacchaeus promises to sell half of his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor, and to pay back four-fold those he has defrauded. Or Nehemiah 2, the story of Nehemiah’s construction of the walls of Jerusalem for the common good of the whole city.

Proclaiming the theme of “Gospel in the City,” we came into the Atlanta neighborhood that perhaps least signifies this city. We held forth at length on topics like “doing justice in the city” and “dwelling in the city,” while doing neither of those things. When 130+ preachers come to the city, the city should be different when they leave, and the only net change should not be an increase in the profits of already wealthy innkeepers. The poor, the widows and orphans, the captive, the oppressed, these should be the recipients of our work.

Of course, the mission of the Academy of Preachers is not the working of justice. Its mission is to “identify, network, encourage, and support young preachers.” This organization is not a social service but a training ground, a kind of laboratory that facilitates good preaching in the people that I am often blessed to call my peers. And I believe in this mission. Otherwise, I wouldn’t invest nearly as much time with the Academy as I do.

But good preaching – the kind of preaching I believe the AoP is called to teach – must facilitate a good and just response. It is not enough to sit in a ballroom and loudly “amen!” a pointed critique of the systemic injustices of our society. It is not enough to whoop at the top of our lungs if we don’t cry for justice with equal measure. It is not enough to spend hours laboring over a rhetorically brilliant manuscript. We must labor for the kingdom in ways that realize the kingdom in the lives of those who live outside the boundaries of Buckhead.

I suppose I wouldn’t feel this way if the Festival hadn’t been in my city this year. I certainly didn’t feel this way after Louisville last year. But it is my city, and it is the city of millions of others, others who desperately need the kind of work that should be inspired (yes, even the lives of the preachers) by the words we were saying. Our actions – including the ways and the places we spend our money – should reflect the moves of our homilies.

Thus, as we reflect on our time in Atlanta and look forward to another (wonderful, inspiring) National Festival in Indianapolis, I have but one simple message: we have to practice what we preach.

Just as the National Festival provides the opportunity to hear my peers and form lasting relationships with them, I value the mentors and coaches who dedicate their time and energy into the event as well. The affirmations that resound within each preaching venue and the wisdom that is shared can sometimes exceed what is offered through structured lecture halls. The voice of this emerging generation coupled with the wisdom of people who have walked this path creates a sense of hope and excitement within me. I feel the church is in good hands. I feel supported in my call to gospel preaching. I feel encouraged that I have at least one hundred other young people who understand the frustrations of ministry and preaching, and serve as a reminder that I am not alone on this journey.

This year we brought the gospel to the city! I met some great new people, many who this was their first festival. To be able to look them in the eyes and tell them they would be fine and just preach like they were at home gave them confidence. I was able to connect with friends who I met last year and hear the great things they have been doing and how their lives have changed was refreshing. But one of the most humbling experiences was meeting people who only knew me by my YouTube video from last year, and have them say they were excited to hear the real thing finally. And not only did they say it, but they showed up in full force for my sixteen minutes of fame and reaffirmed my call to gospel preaching.

Remembering D L Moody (1837-1899)

One hundred twenty five of the brightest young people in the country, all students at the highly-competitive Ivy League schools of the northeast, gathered to discuss their common projects: writing, editing, and publishing Christian scholarly journals for their respective student bodies.

Two speakers were on tap, and both were top notch: Dr. Michael Lindsay, world-class sociologist and president of near-by Gordon College; and Dr. John Lennox, world-class apologist and lecturer in Mathematics at Oxford University.

I was there because the organizers and the benefactors want to partner with the Academy of Preachers to host a Festival of Young Preachers in the region. I came away thinking: this is very do-able, in this very place!

The “place” was Park Street Church, a famous and influential congregation whose prime-time location is a block from the state capital and adjacent to Boston Common. Within easy walking blocks are the Old South Meetinghouse, the Old Statehouse, the famous Tremont Temple Baptist Church, the King’s Chapel, and the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.

Right in the middle of all of them is the site on Court Street with the historical plate marking the spot where the famous preacher Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) was converted at the age of 18. I took a picture of it and posted it on Facebook.

I left Boston convinced it is the right place for the New England Festival of Young Preachers, and we will start planning for a 2014 date. Before I left, three young Harvard University undergraduates told me they would register for the New York Regional Festival scheduled for this September; and this morning an email brought the name and school of yet another one of these Ivy League students.
Add to these the steady stream of Harvard and Yale students who preach at our National Festival, and the healthy network of young New York preachers who do the same, and I suspect we will have one spectacular event this fall in New York and another one next year in Boston.

Boston: I’m ready to go to Boston again!

For four years the Academy of Preachers has been, basically, a program of a local church: first, with St. Matthews Baptist Church and, then, with Middletown Christian Church.  The money that was given by the Lilly Endowment to  launch and sustain the AoP was actually given to these two churches; and they have, in turn, been responsible for managing it and reporting on it.

What began has a “pilot project” has proven itself worthy of a long-term trajectory, and the AoP team (Moody, Moody, Holbrook, and Godbey) are determined to lead the organization into a healthy and hopeful future.

Seven people signed on as founding Directors: John Williams of Owensboro, KY, Martin Linebach of Louisville, KY, Ernest Brooks of Atlanta GA, Julie Roe of Springfield TN, David Emery of Louisville KY, Christopher Gay of Alexandria VA, and Robin Thomerson of Lexington KY. The first three were elected officers at the first meeting two weeks ago.

Over the next 12 months the board of Directors will give its attention to developing policies for the AoP, identifying risk factors, supervising the CEO (president) of the corporation, securing resources for the AoP, and planning for the eventual succession of both the CEO and the Directors. The board will meet four times a year, including in conjunction with the National Festival of Young Preachers: next year in Indianapolis.

The Academy of Preachers continues to enjoy the support of the Lilly Endowment, but it also seeks donors to help fund its programs.  In the beginning, the Endowment grant provided for 95% of the expenditures of the AoP; now that number is about 67% and the goal is to continue to increase the percentage that comes from other sources: sales, fees, gifts, grants, and interest.

To further solidify the programs and reputation of the Academy of Preachers, the long-standing Board of Advisors will be reconstituted, redefined, and renamed: the Council of Advisors. At least 25 preachers, professors, and administrators will be recruited during the next year to constitute this council. Their role will be to serve as advocates, donors, volunteers, and mentors.

Incorporation is a big step for any organization. We celebrate this achievement and we eagerly face the future full of energy and confidence that God will complete in and through us the work that we have been called to do: identify, network, support, and inspire young people in their call to gospel preaching.