The Survey Says…
Friends of Preachers Institute, thank you for participating in our online poll regarding a Doctor of Ministry degree in Orthodox Homiletics. During April and May, we asked you, our readers, what you would like to see in an advanced professional degree in Orthodox homiletics.
The specific question was:
What would you like to see in a Doctoral program in Orthodox Homiletics?
All in all, there were 194 respondents. Each could vote for as many selections as they wished.
Here are the results:
119 votes Affordability: $50-100 (USD)/ month
115 votes A Study of the Sermons of the Patristic Fathers
102 votes Training in the Orthodox Tradition of communication, from classical rhetoric to new media
100 votes A program that will bring my skill in preaching to a level approaching ‘expert’ in knowledge of preaching, communication, and its history
93 votes I’d prefer a Ph.D. program – an academic degree, not a professional one
78 votes Something I can do while working in my parish, with occasional seminars
62 votes A practical program, honing sermon prep and deliver skills in many venues
58 votes A program which offers a variety of venues; street preaching and evangelism, liturgical preaching, writing, posting on social media, blogging, etc.
24 votes A historical study – primarily
22 votes Something different – to get me out of my comfort zone
These are telling results, and we appreciate your input.
Sadly, not all Orthodox clergy are interested in improving their skill or advancing their education in homiletics, but for those of you who are, the Preachers Institute is preparing to serve your needs, and offer more for you, the preacher in the trenches of parish work, laboring prayerfully to rightly define the word of Truth, and proclaim the Gospel of Christ.
by Fr. John A. Peck
TAKE THE POLL!
When we were in the early stages of discussing the mission and goals of the Preachers Institute, one that stuck out was the opportunity for advanced, intensive study of homiletics among Orthodox clergy.
We decided early on that the professional degree (D. Min.), not an academic degree (such as a Ph.D. or a Th. D) would best fulfill our vision, as it was the preacher on-the-ground, in the parish preaching that wanted more opportunities to advance his study and practice of homiletics where it counted most – in the local Church.
And indeed, a year since we launched Preachers Institute, we have over 10,000 unique visitors to our site monthly. Material is copied from PI daily!
In order to better facilitate the planning and implementation of such a degree, we’re asking each of you to take the poll in the sidebar. Choose as many as you like to answer, just be as honest as you can.
The poll will end on May 15th at midnight.
Please do not hesitate to
Share your opinions via the online poll;
Share your ideas and needs, if they don’t fit into the options listed;
Pass this to others, who can likewise, take this poll and help us.
Thanks for helping us out by registering your opinion on this poll.
We have much more coming this year from Preachers Institute. Stay tuned, as they say.
And, as always, pray for us.
by Fr. Dcn. Barnabas Powell
Our good friend, Fr. Barnabas, newly ordained deacon and blogger at Sober Joy, co-teaches the course PAST 7201 – Preaching: Proclaiming The Kindgom, with Fr. Nick Triantifilou, the president of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. Fr. Nick is the main professor, and Fr. Dcn. Barnabas is the co-instructor. In this preaching lesson, which was given earlier this year, we are given an excellent example of a three-step process to preparing an effective sermon on the Gospel.
Tonight we are going to look at one way to organize a homily to insure that your homily has a clear purpose and a clear structure to encourage effective preaching.
The outline I use is as follows:
Introduction
D.S. – (Declarative Statement)
T.S. – (Transitional Statement)
I. (1st Main Point)
1. (Sub points)
2.
Ill. – (Illustration)
Appl. – (Application)
T.S. – (Transitional Statement)
II. (2nd Main Point)
1. (Sub points)
2.
Ill. – (Illustration)
Appl. – (Application)
T.S. – (Transitional Statement)
Conclusion Read more
Congratulations to our Bloggers who signed up for the 30 (40) Days of Blogging.
Today is the 40th day! Your marathon journey has come to an end! Axios!
I want to thank everyone for participating. I’ve been reading your blogs, and I must say, I’m impressed with your work and the incredible labor that went into it. We will repeat this exercise next year, starting (once again) on Nov. 15th.
In the meantime, I want to especially congratulation some especially distinguished and new bloggers:
Fr. Matthew Thurman, of St. Luke’s Mission in Solon, OH, and his blog “30 Days.”
Fr. David Eynon of Annunciation Church in Decatur, IL, and his blog “Shine Within Our Hearts.”
Fr. Seraphim Holland of St. Nicholas Church in McKinney, TX, and his blog “Redeeming the Time.”
Finally, Fr. Athanasios Haros, of Transfiguration Church, Florence, SC, who is the author of the “Be Transfigured” blog. He blogged every single day of our 40 Day Challenge. Fr. Athanasios also blogged on the New Testament Challenge, not an easy thing to do with a full pastoral schedule, let alone to blog on. Frankly, it was a herculean feat!
I want to thank our most experienced bloggers, Fr. James Coles and Fr. Peter Michael Preble, who are very experienced and outstanding bloggers. You added some great inspiration, not only to blogging, but to preaching. More than once I have ‘borrowed’ material from your blogs for my sermons.
In fact, I’ve done that with all our bloggers. Thank you for helping me preach with more excellence.
Most of all, congratulations to all! See you next Nativity Fast!
by Fr. Jonathan Cholcher
Sermons can always be better, that is, more effective. Improvement does not happen by accident, but by the deliberate process of understanding key elements of sermon effectiveness and constantly evaluating one’s performance based on these criteria.
Three key elements, or criteria, are suggested by the ancient writer Plutarch’s likening of public speaking to the successful exercise of playing catch (On Listening, 3). One, something worthwhile is thrown, or related (i.e., the content). Two, what is thrown must be aimed with proper trajectory (i.e., delivery). Finally, what is aimed and thrown must be caught (i.e., the receptivity of the audience).
The effectiveness of a sermon can thus be surmised by answering the question: How well are the preacher and hearers playing catch with the Word of God? We will consider the three elements above in reverse order to arrive at an answer in a constructive way. Read more
The Art of Speaking Workshop
by Fr. John A. Peck
Having returned from the “Art of Speaking” Workshop, I find myself happily surprised.
In the two decades I’ve been listening to Orthodox homilies, in many parishes in many states, I’m quite confident in saying that (in my experience) most Orthodox preaching is generally poor. By most I mean a good 90%, and by poor I mean it’s just plain weak. I’m sorry to say it, but this is my experience, and my opinion, of course, and you are free to disagree, but by and large this is because homiletic training for clergy is abysmal. The lack of care, thought and preparation in most sermons which I have heard (and some I have myself delivered – ouch) betrays a poor priestly formation. This is best remedied in three ways: Read more
By Fr. John A. Peck
We all know sermon preparation is important, but this article answers the specific questions: “What kind?” “How much?”
“Proper prior planning prevents poor performance.” Every time I say this, my wife throws something at me. Nonetheless, and dodging household missiles aside, every Orthodox clergyman or preacher who preaches a homily knows well that preparation is essential for successful preaching. What kind of preparation, how much, and in what order is somewhat more amorphous topic, and often draws ambiguous answers, even from highly experienced clergy.
In this article, I propose an easy to use guideline for sermon prep which establishes what to do, when to do it, why it is important, and what it leads to.
I call it “The Preaching Pyramid.” Read more
Welcome to the Preachers Institute.
The Preachers Institute is an Orthodox Christian Homiletics Resource site, which will soon be offering articles, workshops, seminars and exercises designed to assist and improve the exposition of the Gospel in the Orthodox Christian Church.
As St. Paul says,
But we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Cor. 1:23-24
We are after the finest examples, articles and commentary on homiletics, and there will be some terrific material on this site shortly, contributed by some of the best teachers, preachers and homilists in the English speaking Orthodox world.
Check back soon.
We’re just getting started.
The following has been excerpted from an article by Fr. Aris Metrakos, entitled, On The Priesthood, and published in 2002 by Orthodoxytoday.org.
The more we pray, the better we preach. Why? Because it frees the Holy Spirit to guide the thoughts and words of the homilist. At the same time, preparing and delivering sermons is a skill that requires attention, perspiration, and revision. There are very few natural born preachers. Most good preachers just make it look effortless because they work hard preparing their sermons.
There are a variety of approaches to sermon preparation and delivery. Write it out and read it. Write it out and memorize it. Write it out and reduce it to an outline and use the outline when preaching. Write it out, reduce it to outline and memorize the outline. Write an outline and refer to the outline and notes as necessary in delivering the sermon. Write only an outline and commit it to memory.
It is never acceptable to show up and just start talking. This is especially true when preaching in a language that is not our mother tongue — no matter how well we think we speak that second language. Stream of consciousness worked for Hunter S. Thompson. For the rest of us, it only creates fear and loathing in the hearts of our listeners.
Preachers should record their sermons and listen to them. This helps us spot the linguistic quirks (rushing, not letting a period be a cadence, filler words such as “you know,” etc.) that keep our message from reaching the congregation.
Why all this attention to preaching? Is it to keep from being embarrassed? To look good? To gain favor? To justify a pay raise?
No. In the words of an older, much wiser priest, “When we preach, we are telling a group of people we love something that will save their lives.”
That’s why the craft of homiletics deserves so much attention.
Homiletics in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific work of public preaching.
The one who practices or studies homiletics is called a homilist.
Homiletics (Greek homiletikos, from homilos, to assemble together), is one of those disciplines which is easy to do, but difficult to do well. The terms homily and sermon are often used interchangeably (see the glossary for an exacting definition). The art of homiletics is not to be undertaken lightly or casually, but with much prayer, and not a little fasting.
The crafting of the homily is a lot like writing a song. There are millions of songs out there, and more being written every day, but few being sung. Few touch a chord within the listener. Few get inside, so to speak. The turn of the phrase is not extemporaneous, but exacting. The measure of language, inflection, delivery and even diction should be prayerfully considered. It is an awesome and fearful thing to stand in the fire.
How much more to deliver it? Read more
