Preaching

This course is designed to help you make significant progress towards achieving the following objectives:

• Clarify what a sermon is, what the central goals of preaching are, and the processes of putting sermons together.
• Understand the role and importance that God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), the text, the preacher, preaching and the audience have in preaching.
• Understand and practice Christ-centered, grace/gospel based preaching from both Old and New Testament texts.
• Appreciate the value and priority of preaching expository sermons in preaching God’s word to his people.
• Be able to use sound exegetical methods to dig into the original context and content and meaning of a passage.
• Outline the main topic and points of a text, and interpret the meaning for your audience.
• Build your sermon out of the text by constructing a sermon outline with the goal of keeping the message true to the central point of the text, easy to follow and understand, focusing on the main point rather than trying to cover too much.
• Grow in understanding of our personal part in preaching, including the foundational roles of spiritual formation, prayer and ethics.
• Understand the importance of knowing and loving those we speak to.
• Develop our speaking skills, so we are able to communicate clearly, and in a way that reaches into the hearts and minds and lives of our listeners.
• Be aware of and utilize many of the helpful resources that are available to help us be better servants of Jesus, his word and his church.