Singing

Summer 2008 Seminars

A report by the Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary

The summer of 2008 marked a high point for the four-year-old “Center for Excellence in Preaching” as the Center sponsored and led four highly successful seminars in June and July. Three of these seminars were one week in length and one was two weeks long. All four were attended by pastors who had the rich opportunity to come away for a time from the pressures of their ministries and their ongoing task of writing new sermons so as to interact with peers in ministry and pick up a wealth of new ideas designed to re-energize them for their important tasks in Christ’s Church. Although the summer seminar format works best with small groups of between 15-20 pastors in each seminar group, the learning is magnified precisely by having such close interactions with ministry peers even as all of what is learned and shared gets carried back by each participant in ways that will enrich all the members of the various congregations whom these pastors serve.

The Center for Excellence in Preaching is grateful to all who applied for these seminars. We are also grateful to note that each seminar group was very ecumenical in nature. Although Calvin Theological Seminary continues to attract many pastors from the Reformed tradition, this year’s seminar events included a wide variety of church traditions including Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, United Church of Christ, and Presbyterian. We are very grateful to be able to host seminars in which the participants bring such ecumenical riches to the table.

This report is designed to give you a little taste of the Center’s seminar activities and a little idea of what those events meant to the pastors who attended.