Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Nikolaus Satelmajer

Second Advisor

Jerry Moon

Third Advisor

Richard Sylvester

Abstract

Problem

Many congregations that are part of multi-church districts are presented with the challenge of motivating and equipping lay people with the skills they need for effective preaching in the postmodern world. This project sought to develop a compact and user-friendly preaching workshop, and preaching laboratory to train lay preachers to preach effectively.

Method

A Scripture and literature search was conducted on preaching. Principles were used to develop Holistic Preaching Workshop and Preaching Laboratory which were given to lay preachers of Manhattan Seventh-day Adventist Church in Manhattan, New York City. After the six-hour weekend workshop lay preachers delivered public presentations at the Wings Theatre in which they used seminar principles. Their preaching was videotaped. Participant and audience responses were solicited in order to evaluate and revise the workshop.

Results

Research revealed that lay preaching is an effective and legitimate plan prepared by God for spreading of the Gospel. Three principal factors of holistic postmodern preaching were suggested: authenticity of the speaker, Scriptural accuracy, audience adaptation. Lay preachers appreciated the workshop, but some felt that they did not have enough time to assimilate new material. Audience responses to lay sermons increased as more holistic principles were incarnated in preaching.

Conclusions

Suggested principles of holistic preaching seem valid, and there appears to be a strong receptivity for lay preaching training. The workshop may also be effective with professional clergy. Applications of the workshop to other audiences than lay speakers require adaptation and more testing. Practical sermon-building skills should be added and follow the introductory stage of the workshop. Training has to be more gradual.

Subject Area

Preaching, Lay preaching, Laity -- Training of, Manhattan Seventh-day Adventist Church (Manhattan, N.Y.)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/301/

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