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Leading from the Pulpit: Preaching and the Whole of Ministry
The Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande
January 14-18, 2013
Instructor:
The Rev. Ruthanna B. Hooke, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Homiletics
Virginia Theological Seminary
rhooke@vts.edu
703-461-1728
Course description: This course invites you, as a congregational leader, to reflect on the
relationship of your preaching to the whole of your ministry. As an integrative and public
practice, preaching is a focal point for congregational ministry, such that through analyzing
your preaching you can gain new insight into the whole of your ministerial leadership, and
discover ways that your preaching can be more effective in shaping your ministry overall.
One of the principal tools for our analysis of preaching in this course will be examining
your body’s experience in preaching, proceeding from the principle that everything that is
happening in your preaching—in relationship to self, text, God, and congregation—is
lodged in your body, so that by attending to your body’s experience in preaching you can
gain new insight into your preaching and your ministry in general. Moreover, this principle
suggests that changing the body’s experience in preaching is one means toward a holistic
transformation of your ministry overall. Thus the course will also engage our bodies to
facilitate this process of transformation.
Course Outcomes—At the end of this course, you, the student, will be able to:
1. Articulate your own theology of preaching, in conversation with the readings and
activities of the course.
2. Articulate how your physical being—body, voice, presence—contributes to your
preaching and ministry as a whole, especially in terms of your authenticity and authority.
3. Use concrete tools to free and strengthen your speaking voice, find a more grounded and
open presence in preaching, and thus develop greater authenticity and authority in your
preaching and leadership.
4. Use Richard Osmer’s fourfold method of practical theological interpretation to analyze
how your sermons address and shape events in your congregation, and how they can do so
more effectively.
5. Discover ways to use your prophetic voice, developed through an embodied relationship
to Scripture, to articulate a normative vision for your congregation and move the
community towards it.
6. Understand how your preaching contributes to the rest of your transformational
leadership in your ministry setting, and develop a plan for how your preaching can do this
more fully.
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READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS TO PREPARE PRIOR TO THE COURSE
Readings to Complete Prior to the Course:
Ruthanna B. Hooke, Transforming Preaching. New York: Church Publishing, 2010.
Offers a brief theology of preaching, and reflects on how the body’s experience
influences preaching.
Thomas G. Long, The Witness of Preaching, 2nd edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2005.
A thoughtful textbook outlining a useful method of preaching, and covering many of
the theological and practical issues involved in the preaching task. For this course, the first
three chapters are required reading, but the rest of the book is also recommended.
Assignment to Send to Instructor Prior to the Course:
Write a short reflection on your preaching as it is now. What are your strengths as a
preacher? What are your growing edges? What would you like to work on in this
workshop?
**Please send this reflection to me by January 8, 2013. This reflection will help guide my
preparation of the course, although none of the material in it will be shared publicly
without the writer’s permission. Please submit this reflection electronically to:
rhooke@vts.edu.
Assignments to Prepare and Bring to the Course:
1. Metaphor for Yourself as a Preacher: Articulate your own theology of preaching (“What
it Means to Preach”) by describing your governing metaphor for yourself as preacher.
Explore how this metaphor informs your preaching practice. How does this metaphor help
describe what you believe preaching is for and why you do it? How does it inform your
process of sermon creation and the way you enter into the preaching moment itself? How
does this metaphor shape your understanding of how God, biblical text, congregation,
world, and self relate in preaching? Reflect on how your recent sermons embody this
metaphor. Write this metaphor up in a short paper (approximately 2-3 pages) that can be
presented to the class, or find another way to present your metaphor. Thomas Long’s
chapter, “What Does it Mean to Preach?” proposes various models for the preacher that
might spur your own reflection on your governing metaphor.
2. Embodiment of Text: Pick a passage from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians that in
some way speaks to your congregational context, and in particular how your preaching
relates to this context. During the week you will be developing a sermon on this passage.
As we will be working on these sermons during the week, please do not prepare them
ahead of time. However, as preparation for your work on this sermon, please learn this
passage by heart. Then work on developing a performance/embodiment of this text to
present for the class. The attached handout “Developing a Text for Performance” provides
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a process you can use to prepare to present this Scripture passage (note that this exercise
asks you to engage in exegetical and interpretive work on this text).
3. Previously Preached Sermon: Please bring with you to the class one sermon you have
preached in the five months prior to the course (September 2012-January 2013).
SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Monday, January 14 (evening): Introductions: What is preaching and why do we do
it?
Introductions
Orientation to the Course
Theology of Preaching: discussion and lecture
Tuesday, January 15 (9:00am-12:00noon): Alignment, Presence, Spirit/Breath:
Finding Authentic Voice
Vocal and Physical Exercises: Physical Awareness, Natural Breathing, Presence
Voice Drawings and voice poems
Analysis of recorded sermon
Analysis of your recent sermon
Discussion: what are the sources of authority and authenticity in preaching?
Tuesday, January 15 (2:00-5:00 pm): Who are you as a preacher, and what do you
have to say?
Vocal and Physical exercises—connecting with the voice
Account of the hope that is in you
Analysis of testimony; analysis of recent sermon as testimony
Metaphor for yourself as a preacher
Readings:
Ruthanna B. Hooke, Transforming Preaching, Chapters 1, 2 and 4, pp. 1-45, 96-126.
Thomas Long, “What does it mean to preach?”, Chapter 1 in The Witness of
Preaching, 2nd Edition, pp. 11-51.
Assignments to Bring to Class:
Account of the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15): Choose a Scripture passage that speaks to
the hope that is in you. Develop a 3-minute testimony to the hope that is in you, based on
this passage. These will be presented to the class.
Metaphor for Yourself as a Preacher:
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Wednesday, January 16 (9:00am-12:00noon): Biblical Exegesis for Preaching—the
Meeting of Biblical Text and Normative Vision
Analysis of recent sermon in light of Osmer’s fourfold method
Lecture, discussion and workshop on biblical exegesis for preaching
Biblical text meets normative vision
Reading:
Thomas G. Long, The Witness of Preaching, 2nd edition, Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 52-98.
Richard Osmer, Practical Theology: An Introduction, Introduction, pp. 1-29.
Assignment to Bring to Class:
A Vision for your Congregation: please write a short statement (1-2 pages) of your vision
for how your congregation can develop toward a fuller expression of the reign of God, or
the ideal of Christ’s servanthood (see Osmer, p. 192). You may articulate a general vision
for transformation, or focus on a particular area (outreach, hospitality, diversity, spiritual
deepening, etc.) in which you seek transformation for your community. What would this
community look and act like if it were transformed according to your vision for it? How
does the text you have chosen from 1 Corinthians speak to this vision of transformation?
Wednesday, January 16 (2:00-5:00pm): The Power of the Word Made Flesh:
Embodiment of Text as Exegesis and Interpretation
Vocal and Physical Exercises: Humming—sound going out into the world
Text Exercises
Performances of Texts from 1 Corinthians
Vision for your congregation in relation to 1 Corinthians text
Assignment to Bring to Class:
Performance of Passage from 1 Corinthians
Thursday, January 17 (9:00am-12:00noon): Freeing your Prophetic Voice
Vocal and Physical Exercises: The Jaw, Tongue, and Soft Palate
Oracles of judgment, lament, and hope/vision
Discussion of the normative/prophetic dimension of this sermon and of your preaching in
general: based on your vision of the congregation, what do you need to say? What is not
being said?
Assignments to Bring to Class:
Lament/Oracle of Judgment: Write a prophetic lament or an oracle of judgment related to
the vision for your congregation which you are promoting in your sermon on 1 Corinthians.
Use Amos and Jeremiah as models. These laments/oracles will be delivered in class.
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Oracle of Hope: Write a prophetic oracle of hope related to the same congregational vision
on which you wrote the lament. Use Second Isaiah as a model. These oracles of hope will
be delivered in class.
Readings:
Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, pp. 39-79.
Thursday, January 17 (2:00-5:00pm): Preaching and Transformational Leadership
Vocal and Physical Exercises: The Resonators
Sermons on 1 Corinthians
Assignments to Bring to Class:
Sermon: Short (5 minute) sermon on 1 Corinthians text, which will be preached for the
class
Friday, January 18 (9:00am-12:00 noon): Preaching and Transformational
Leadership—Integration and Sending Forth
Sermons on 1 Corinthians (continued)
Discussion and integration: a vision for preaching and transformational leadership
Readings:
Charles Campbell, The Word Before the Powers, Chapter 4, pp. 68-88.
Ruthanna B. Hooke, Transforming Preaching, Chapter 5, pp. 127-138.