The Roberts Center for Clergy Excellence of the Central Texas Conference is partnering with the Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence at SMU on “Next Level Preaching” - a series of workshops and webinars designed to support and strengthen the preaching ministries of pastors in the Central Texas Conference.
The first offering of this new partnership will be “Next Level Preaching: Honing Your Homiletical Skills” - a preaching peer group for clergy who would like to fine tune their skills in the craft of preaching. Registration is on a first come basis and will be limited to 10 to allow maximum benefit to participants. Limited Scholarships are available.

Next Level Preaching: Honing Your Homiletical Skills Course Info

The group of 10 participants will meet for five zoom sessions from 9:30 a.m. to noon on select Tuesdays from February through May (Feb 14, Feb 28, March 28, April 25, and May 23). The Roberts Center is subsidizing this opportunity, so the cost to participate is only $100 per person. CEU certification will be available. 
 
The time between each class is designed to give you time to prepare by reading an assigned brief article or book chapter on topics that relate both to content and delivery. Each session includes a discussion of sermons by two group members that the rest of the group have viewed online before the session. The following are the planned session topics…

  • Session I (Feb. 14): Honing the theological precision of your sermons.
  • Session II (Feb. 28): Honing your skill at discovering and using imagery, metaphor, scene and story in your sermons.
  • Session III (March 28): Honing your rhetorical skills in addressing controversial issues and conflictual situations.
  • Session IV (April 25): Honing your skills of sermon sequencing: the communication plan (or form) of your sermon. 
  • Session V (May 23): Honing your delivery (embodiment) skills.

 
The group will be resourced by Rev. Dr. Paul Scott Wilson, Professor of Homiletics Emeritus at Emmanuel College of the University of Toronto. Dr. Wilson is a prolific author and one of the most respected and recognized teachers of homiletics in North America. The group will get to read some of Dr. Wilson’s work, as well as hear Dr. Wilson offer teaching and responses to participants’ questions and will be convened by Rev. Beth Evers, University United Methodist Church, Fort Worth

A tentative schedule for each session is as follows...
  • 9:15-9:30 Check-In  
  • 9:30-10:15 Discussion of readings and the subject of the day
  • 10:15-10:25 Break
  • 10:25-10:45 Further issues
  • 10:45-11:15 Discuss first sermon
  • 11:15-11:25 Break
  • 11:25- 11:55 Discuss second sermon 
  • 11:55 Q and A; Wrap up 

    Looking Ahead to the "Next Level Preaching" Fall

In the fall, the Roberts Center and Perkins will offer a second installment of Next Level Preaching on the topic of preaching and humor, based on the book "Humor Us! Preaching and the Power of the Comic Spirit" by Perkins preaching professor Dr. Alyce McKenzie and SMU humor scholar Dr. Owen Lynch. The authors will co-lead this webinar that will explore the power of humor to be more than an opening joke.

About Paul Scott Wilson

Paul Scott Wilson is Professor of Homiletics Emeritus at Emmanuel College of the University of Toronto. He is one of the most respected and recognized teachers of homiletics in North America. He is the author of a number of books, including The Practice of Preaching, Imagination of the Heart, God Sense: Reading the Bible for Preaching, and The Four Pages of the Sermon, all published by Abingdon Press. He is the General Editor of The New Interpreter's Handbook of Preaching.