Calling all pastors - Free preaching workshop
CHERRY LOG, Ga. – The Craddock Center invites pastors and laypersons from across the Appalachian region to the upcoming Preaching Workshop on Monday, March 6, to be led by Rev. Dr. Alyce M. McKenzie, director of the Center for Preaching Excellence, an initiative funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc. She is also a George W. and Nell Ayers Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. She joined the faculty at Perkins in 2000. In the spring of 2011, she was named an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor by SMU, SMU’s highest teaching honor.
Dr. McKenzie was the 2012 President of the Academy of Homiletics, an organization of teachers of preaching from North America with a growing international membership. Dr. McKenzie, an ordained United Methodist elder since 1981, was a member of the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference (now the Susquehanna Annual Conference) from 1981- 2007. She is currently a member of the North Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church where she serves on the Board of Ordained Ministry’s Preparation and Qualifications Committee. From 1980- 1988 she served as Associate Pastor at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in York, Pa. Dr. McKenzie currently serves as Preacher- in- Residence at Christ United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas where she preaches monthly and serves as preaching coach to members of their clergy staff. She received her BA in the History of Religions from Bryn Mawr College, her Master of Divinity degree from the Divinity School of Duke University, and her Ph. D. in Theology and Communication in Preaching from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Dr. McKenzie is a frequently featured preacher, Bible study leader and teacher at workshops, conferences, and worship services both in Texas and t hroughout t he country. She will bring a workshop on “Novel Preaching: Fiction Writing Strategies for Sermons.” She will suggest how you can borrow the best practices of novelists to craft sermons that gain and maintain listener attention. Participants will practice being attentive to aspects of story ( conflict, dialogue, scene) in our inner lives ( inscape), outer lives ( landscape) and the biblical text ( textscape). Dr. McKenzie calls this habit KFN (Knack for Noticing), and she will demonstrate how that habit shapes sermons that speak to both mind and heart.
The Preaching Workshop will be held at The Craddock Center on Monday, March 6 from 8: 30 a. m. to noon. Breakfast and lunch will be served and seating is limited. Online registration is required and open now at craddockcenter. eventbrite. com. Please contact The Craddock Center at 706- 632- 1772 or valerie- craddock@ tds. net with questions.