On Oct. 4-5, alumni and members of the Luther Seminary community gathered on campus for the first annual Working Preacher Presents: The Craft of Preaching. The conference was designed around a master class format, not only allowing participants to hear faithful preachers from the pulpit, but also giving participants the opportunity to hone their own homiletical skills through various workshops. In a letter of welcome, host Karoline Lewis, associate professor of biblical preaching and The Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary, remarked, “We preachers love going to preaching events. We get to hear great preaching.” But at the same time, she continued, “We sometimes come away a little discouraged, wondering how we can ever preach ‘like that’.”
Speakers Anna Carter Florence, Jana Childers and Tomas G. Long, along with the help of a host of other workshop leaders, encouraged participants not to emulate “good preachers,” but rather to find his or her own authentic, faithful preaching voice and style. Each of the main speakers preached during worship and then analyzed their own sermons publically following the service. Along with joining in more than a dozen different workshops, some participants were also able to receive feedback from speakers and peers on their own sermons.
The Aus Memorial Lecture on evangelism also took place in October. Michael Bridges and George Baum of the musical duo Lost And Found presented, “The Music of Faith is Fun” which sought to explore the ways in which the music of worship brings people together across generations and denominations. “George and Michael helped us think about how forming Christian community is vital to evangelism,” said Rolf Jacobson, professor of Old Testament and The Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Scripture, Theology and Ministry. “In particular, they helped us think about how the Lutheran understanding of the good news—particularly the belief that all the baptized are already fully part of the Christian community—ought to prevent us from acting in a condescending way toward teenagers and others with whom we are sharing the love of Christ.”
You can view photos of these events on our flickr page.