Teresa Fry Brown
Mining Moral Imagination In Unsettling Times
Reflecting on Charles Taylor’s concept of “social imaginary,” Richard Burke’s definition of moral imagination, and womanist homiletics, the lecture will explore principles and beliefs for preaching in uncertain or disruptive times.

John L. Bell
Creative Communal Bible Study
Many Bible study programmes begin with the information; seldom do they start with the people. It has been John Bell’s experience that when, in a non-judgemental environment, the pastor is not looking for the preferred right answer there are gems of insight which can be culled from the experience, wisdom, and imagination of the laity. This workshop will highlight a number of creative practices that can produce new insights to scripture and fresh ideas for sermons.

Sarah Han
Preaching Jesus from Rhythms of Abiding
The call to faithfully preach Jesus Christ in a complex world can quickly lead to pastoral exhaustion. In this interactive workshop, we will look at a preacher’s life not as a series of tasks, but as a rhythm composed by accented beats. Developing rhythm is essential for authentic ministry and holistic longevity as a preacher. We will step back from the mechanics of sermon preparation to focus on the soul of the preacher, using John 15 and ‘abide in the Vine’. We will explore personal rhythms that move from being “citizens of this world” to “citizens of heaven.” Preaching becomes the life-giving overflow of an everyday relationship with the living Christ.

Gail Ricciuti
Jesus the Conundrum:  Preaching the Questions
As preachers, how can we overcome tired and well-trodden renderings of Jesus Christ and his work in the world? Exploring the unexpected silences around Jesus’ words can offer fresh and intriguing perspectives concerning Christ. Within narrative, there are gaps that imply but don’t fully reveal. We do best to treat such textual silences and gaps from the pulpit with strategies like: magnifying the questions; suggesting answers; offering images; and other possibilities. We will explore Bible texts and share wisdom and experience with each other.

Andrew Stirling
Learning from Bonhoeffer’s Christology for Our Time of Hyper-nationalisms
Christocentric preaching is essential in a world of competing ideologies. Bonhoeffer stood against the tide of divisive and dangerous nationalist propaganda. He saw Christ as the means of addressing his age with a radically different understanding of being faithful. He spoke of “Christ the Centre”: “The humiliated one is present for us as the risen and exalted one… [We] have to deal with the God-Man who is known to us only through the resurrection and exaltation.” We will discuss how this ‘humiliated one’, reorients us when we are bombarded by both false messiahs and dangerous ‘king’-doms.

Eugene Sutton
Preaching Public Issues
“Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.” This final line from William Shakespeare’s King Lear speaks to a dilemma that most preachers face in our polarized world: when do I speak what I feel I ought to be saying in these turbulent times, and how do I preach it? The gospel of Christ affects all of life. Preachers may choose not to not address controversial issues that have the potential to further divide their congregations. This workshop will draw on the leader’s decades of experience as a bishop in Washington, DC. He will offer suggestions for how sermons can be preached, and more importantly heard, in churches today.

R. H. Thomson
The Power of The Story: Wondrous or Malevolent
Stories underpin the arts, commercials, the Bible, governments, and even armies. Jesus was a master storyteller. Preaching Jesus Christ inevitably involves storytelling and understanding how stores work. Many scholars have argued, “The form of the stories is the story.” How a story is told—its structure, style, perspective, and techniques—is inseparable from its actual meaning and content. In this workshop an old storyteller will explore how, using narrative, we can wrap our unfathomable existence and even the mysteries of faith and practice into liveable realities.

Craig Barnes
Preaching Jesus Christ In A Day of Fear

Teresa Fry Brown
Luke 4 Sermons: Pastoral, Prophetic or Problematic?
The workshop will focus on effective employment of the text in the preaching moment.

John Boutros
Proclaiming the Presence: From Pain to Paradise
Can preaching do more than offer moral advice? Grounded in the incarnational theology of St. Athanasius, this workshop explores the sermon as a descent into the brokenness of the human condition in order to rise with Christ. Using Paul Wilson’s The Four Pages of the Sermon, we will move beyond moralizing to mediating Christ. Participants will practice identifying how his incarnational presence inhabits our own personal Hades to transform it into a portal for new life. Through three practical hands-on exercises, you will learn to guide your congregation to the eschatological joy of the Resurrection. Refine your preaching style to take the listeners by the hand, find Christ in the midst of their pain, and lead them into the Paradise of God’s grace here and now.

Jason Byassee
What is Jewish about the Ongoing Saving Significance of Jesus?
What does it mean for our salvation that God became a Jewish person? Is this inconsequential or integral to Jesus’ identity and so to God’s? How does that change life in the church? We participate in interfaith events and stand up against antisemitism, which has increased with the ongoing wars in the Middle East. We try to situate Jesus’ and Paul’s ministries within first century Jewish contexts and conduct worship in a way that honours and respects our Jewish neighbours. Jewish people still sit in the seat of honour in their relationship to the God of Israel. We will discuss suggestions to help change how we preach, worship, and conduct ourselves in the world.

Scott Hoezee
Quoting Jesus: When Jesus’ Words Get the Preacher into Trouble and What to Do about It.
In 2024 peer learning cohorts, in a program run by Calvin Seminary Center for Excellence in Preaching, pondered what it’s like for preachers to navigate the hyper-partisan environment characterizing many societies and congregations today. A common observation was that just quoting the biblical words of Jesus was too often received by some churchgoers as some kind of partisan axe-grinding. In this workshop we will ponder, 1) the causes of this rather bracing reality, and 2) what preachers can do to address this in a positive manner deeply rooted in Scripture.

Susan Sparks
Clearing the Clutter to Channel the Call: Jesus and Marie Kondo
The biggest challenge in preaching may not be finding the right words, but letting go of the wrong ones. Why? Most weeks, we prepare to preach dragging a suitcase of stress, doubt, unresolved conversations, and worries about the world. The clutter can co-opt the call. Jesus had a different rhythm. The Holy Spirit cleared space in the wilderness so the Word could come through clean to him. In this workshop, we’ll take a page from Jesus and organizational expert Marie Kondo—asking what in us needs to stay and what needs to go?  Until the clutter is cleared, the Word can’t come through with the power it deserves—and neither can our God-given voice.

Sarah Travis
Baptized and Called: Equipping Lay People to Preach
Lay people have always preached sermons. By virtue of baptism, lay people are empowered to preach the gospel in many settings. With what in many places is a shortage of clergy, there is a rising need for lay people to be equipped to do this work, and for pastors who can teach and support lay people in their congregations. This workshop is for pastors who want to encourage lay preachers to prepare and preach sermons with confidence and grace. How can pastors identify lay people with gifts for preaching ministry and equip them to preach the gospel?

Two Open Sessions available to all attendees. NO NEED TO REGISTER!

Panel Discussion 1 – Preaching Jesus Christ: Jason Byassee and Paul Scott Wilson
Panel Discussion 2 – ‘Once Upon A Sermon’ A Preachers Guide to Storytelling: Ins Choi, Susan Sparks, and RH Thomson

John L. Bell
A Life In a Comma
A look at how the incarnate ministry of Jesus has – for a variety of reasons – been relegated in significance in preaching and song, in preference to unbiblical notions of Christmas and theological theories of the atonement.

Craig Barnes
Preaching Jesus Christ in Times of Conflict
The church is striving to fulfill its mission in a day of polarization, fragmentation, and divisive conflicts. This is not only true of the societies around the church, but also within the church itself. And amid all the cacophony of competing claims to truth, and blaming others for our problems, the preacher stands offering the Word of God. This workshop will explore biblical and Christological affirmations about the mission of the church in times of conflict.

Emily Bisset
Preaching Salvation: An Exploration
An understanding of salvation generally comes through preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We often assume that through worship practices and understandings of Christian faith and life, people are able to articulate what salvation actually means. However, many Christians, including preachers, struggle at this. Talk about salvation unfortunately is often reserved for Holy Week and Easter. By contrast, we best understand salvation in the context of Jesus’ life and Scripture as a whole. Together with the Holy Spirit we will revive theological words and bring them to life, in ways that invite our people for our congregations to deeper faith and joy.

Laura de Jong
Dream Deaths: The Comfort and Challenge of a Surprising Saviour
Our sanctuaries are filled with people who have experienced the death of a dream. Life hasn’t turned out the way they had hoped. A career move didn’t pan out. The relationship ended after six dates. The story of Jesus is a story of dreams dying. Jesus wasn’t who people expected. He challenges our expectations (and possibly our preferences) of what it looks like to be in relationship with God. In that challenge is a comfort. At the very point where our plans go awry, God meets us with an invitation to experience a truth greater than anything we could imagine: there is life after death.

Mark Jefferson
Rhythm and Algorithm: Preaching Jesus Christ in a Digitally Scripted World
In an AI-generated world, what does it mean to preach Jesus Christ faithfully? Rather than reducing Christ to a moral example, a political symbol, or a religious slogan, this session considers how preaching can bear witness to his living presence, crucified solidarity, and risen authority. Using Scripture, the Black preaching tradition, and reflections on technology, participants will experience how rhythm, cadence, breath, testimony, and embodied witness can counteract the dulling effects of digital culture. This workshop will provide practical strategies for preaching Jesus Christ with clarity, courage, and creative vision.

Eliana Ku
Preaching Jesus Christ with Hospitality
What might hospitality mean for preaching Jesus Christ in a complex world? This workshop engages biblical texts such as the Emmaus story using a hermeneutic of hospitality. Participants will practice questions with attention to visible and hidden voices, strangerhood, layered belonging, and the many world’s people carry into worship. Our session will also model a hospitable way of preparing sermons through communal interpretation. A sermon-preparation guide and concrete prompts will help participants read Scripture dialogically. A posture of hospitality helps preachers listen more carefully to Christ and the world.

Paul Scott Wilson
Jesus and the Old Testament
Is the Old Testament an optional collection of stories and laws, as some folks in the pews may think? Or is it God’s way of preparing humanity for the coming saving actions of Jesus Christ? Preachers will find their faith deepened and their preaching enhanced with some simple practices that honor how the two Testaments read, interpret, and enrich each other. The same God is in both. We will discuss prophecies of Christ; biblical types, patterns, echoes, or people that foreshadow or anticipate Christ; the cross and resurrection as fulfillment of prophecy; and Easter as the confirmation that all God’s promises will be fulfilled in time.

Fine-Tuned preaching is a bonus session which offers constructive and encouraging support in a small group of peers with two mentors both of whom have wide experience and expertise in the homiletics field. Each participant is expected to deliver a sermon of twelve to fifteen minutes in length. While the sermon needs to be prepared in advance, it does not need to be submitted in advance. It can be a sermon that has already been preached or one you hope to preach. Registration is limited to four participants per group. As the groups fill up there may be an additional group/s added. The sessions will end by 4:00 p.m. Many who participate highlight the Fine-tuned preaching session as one of the most helpful sessions of the LRPF.

There is an addition cost to participate in this session.

Group 1: Gail Ricciuti and Jason Byassee
Group 2: Sarah Travis and Michael Knowles
Group 3: Sarah Han and Scott Hoezee
Group 4: Emily Bisset and Mark Jefferson
Group 5: Susan Sparks and Casey Barton
Group 6: Laura de Jong and Todd Townshend