By Erica Whitaker, AoP '14 This first female preacher I ever heard gave me a snippet of wisdom that I continue to carry in my suit pocket throughout my preaching ministry. She said “Preach anywhere and everywhere. Never pass up an opportunity to preach.” Since I...
Blog
I Never Met Gardner Taylor
I never met the late Gardner C. Taylor. He preached for more than four decades in New York City to wide acclaim and profound effect. It is a shame, my shame; because in my opportunities to invite pulpit guests (and I had many) he was never on the short list. He never...
From Competition to Celebration
By Tim Norton, AoP'15 “This feels like the American Idol of preaching. I’m not sure I want to do that.”The words escaping my lips were true if not overly blunt. My mentor was encouraging me to participate in the Academy of Preachers’ New England Regional Festival of...
A Lucky Lunch
by Rev. Fr. Martin A. Linebach My introduction to the Academy of Preachers came about from what I might call a “lucky lunch.” I am the Ecumenical/Inter-religious Officer for the Archdiocese of Louisville and I was participating in a Kentucky Council of Churches...
Marinating in Holy Waters
by Kristina N. Heise, AoP’2012 The Academy of Preachers is the place where I discovered just how vast and profound God’s word is. The summer before I began seminary, I was given an amazing opportunity to attend an AoP preaching camp in Atlanta, Georgia. Before that...
AoP From Every Angle
By Ernest Brooks, AoP'11 Depending on whom you ask and what day it is, I'm either a preacher in love with the academy or an academic who can't resist the magnetic pull of the pulpit. In either case, I am convinced that I was destined to become a part of The Academy of...
Out of My Comfort Zone
Andrew Boyd, AoP’13 Director of Youth, Young Adult, and Campus Ministry for the Orthodox Church in America National Festival of Young Preachers: 2013, 2014 and 2015 Christian Tradition: Eastern Orthodox Orthodox Church in America I’m Eastern Orthodox. I’m Eastern...
Nine Marks of a Good Sermon
Dwight A. Moody, President, Academy of Preachers Christian people deserve to hear good sermons when we go to worship (or when we download something from the internet). We don’t need great sermons, except once in a long while. We hear too many poor or mediocre sermons...
To Thine Own Self Be True: Preaching with Authenticity
One of Shakespeare’s most famous quotes comes from the character Polonius in Hamlet. He says “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” While I have never been a huge fan of this tragedy, I can say that these words constantly ring in my head every time I stand to preach the gospel of Christ.
More than 1300
There are fifty-two, sometimes fifty-three Sundays in a given calendar year. When I multiply the twenty-five years I have been alive by the approximately fifty-two sermons I listen to yearly, and adding any other conferences, camp meetings, sermons I view online, the result is more than 1300.
Since the age of ten I have collected sermon notes of every sermon I have listened to partially because I am a nerd and I know it helps me retain the material, but more importantly I knew from a young age that I would be preaching some day and I wanted to remember how others preached. Sure, I have hundreds and hundreds of church bulletins and programs with notes I could reference to recall my memory, but when I think about it, I can only remember three or four sermons.
It is not that I can recall the sermons in their entirety; I remember how they were presented, and how they impacted the preacher.