America letter # 14. Preaching.
March 16, 2008
Dear friends,
I take many small courses (1 credit / 2 ECTS) this semester, but I also take to larger (3 credits / 6 ECTS). One of them is “Preaching.”
We have one lecture and one double class, for each of the four small groups we are in, each week. The lectures are about the theology of preaching, the homiletics, while the group class is practice. We are 7-8 students in each group, and each student preaches every three weeks, in total four sermons during the semester. We will try to cover as many challenges as possible; everyone will preach from the Old Testament (or the Hebrew Bible as it is called here) and the epistles, in addition to the gospels. The texts are taken from different seasons of the church year, so we are tested on green, violet, and white context before we are done.
This is a course with much work. 3 credits would normally mean 6 hours of independent work each week. I use more. I have much to read as preparation to the lectures. No one controls that we read these books, but I do anyway, and I find that I learn much. Some of the literature is typical for homiletics, while other is more general theology. One of the great theologians I have discovered is Douglas John Hall. I recommend Hall’s book The Cross in Our Context! The first half of the book was required reading, while the second half was recommended. I read the whole book. I could not put it down when I had discovered how good it was. It is not that strange that this course takes time.
Preparing sermons takes time. Some say it takes an hour to prepare a minute. Our sermons are not more than 10 minutes. But my preparation takes much more than 10 hours. It might not be that strange when I have such a library to choose from. What do pastors and other preachers do, who do not have a seminary as playground? (Maybe they do not use more than 10 hours to prepare a 10 minutes’ sermon.) The first sermon I gave was on Mark 3:20-35, and I struggled much with the unforgivable sin. The library was both helpful and frustrating. Now I am preparing a sermon on 1 Pet 3:18-22. I have never studied 1 Peter, so when I do have this library, I use it; that is, it takes time to write a sermon.
In addition to the sermons in this course, I have given a sermon in the chapel here at Wartburg. The senior students preach on Thursdays. Their class is not that big, so they needed more students. I was invited to preach last Thursday, on Mark 10:32-34, a preparation for Holy Week.
We have a long week without lectures now, Easter recess. I am travelling to Oxford, Michigan on Tuesday (I will arrive Wednesday), to the Lutheran monastery in the USA, Saint Augustine’s House. I look forward to that.
Preacher greetings from Hanne.
Dear friends,
I take many small courses (1 credit / 2 ECTS) this semester, but I also take to larger (3 credits / 6 ECTS). One of them is “Preaching.”
We have one lecture and one double class, for each of the four small groups we are in, each week. The lectures are about the theology of preaching, the homiletics, while the group class is practice. We are 7-8 students in each group, and each student preaches every three weeks, in total four sermons during the semester. We will try to cover as many challenges as possible; everyone will preach from the Old Testament (or the Hebrew Bible as it is called here) and the epistles, in addition to the gospels. The texts are taken from different seasons of the church year, so we are tested on green, violet, and white context before we are done.
This is a course with much work. 3 credits would normally mean 6 hours of independent work each week. I use more. I have much to read as preparation to the lectures. No one controls that we read these books, but I do anyway, and I find that I learn much. Some of the literature is typical for homiletics, while other is more general theology. One of the great theologians I have discovered is Douglas John Hall. I recommend Hall’s book The Cross in Our Context! The first half of the book was required reading, while the second half was recommended. I read the whole book. I could not put it down when I had discovered how good it was. It is not that strange that this course takes time.
Preparing sermons takes time. Some say it takes an hour to prepare a minute. Our sermons are not more than 10 minutes. But my preparation takes much more than 10 hours. It might not be that strange when I have such a library to choose from. What do pastors and other preachers do, who do not have a seminary as playground? (Maybe they do not use more than 10 hours to prepare a 10 minutes’ sermon.) The first sermon I gave was on Mark 3:20-35, and I struggled much with the unforgivable sin. The library was both helpful and frustrating. Now I am preparing a sermon on 1 Pet 3:18-22. I have never studied 1 Peter, so when I do have this library, I use it; that is, it takes time to write a sermon.
In addition to the sermons in this course, I have given a sermon in the chapel here at Wartburg. The senior students preach on Thursdays. Their class is not that big, so they needed more students. I was invited to preach last Thursday, on Mark 10:32-34, a preparation for Holy Week.
We have a long week without lectures now, Easter recess. I am travelling to Oxford, Michigan on Tuesday (I will arrive Wednesday), to the Lutheran monastery in the USA, Saint Augustine’s House. I look forward to that.
Preacher greetings from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 8:26 AM
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