New Site for PI

The new Official website of the Preachers Institute is not online and running.

Follow this link, Preachers Institute, to arrive there.

You will find it a source for an online forum (free, but registration required to post), sermons (text, audio, video), sermon prep articles, great preachers from the past, and much more.

Preaching, fear, and loathing

The following has been excerpted from an article by Fr. Aris Metrakos,  entitled, On The Priesthood, and published in 2002 by Orthodoxytoday.org.

The more we pray, the better we preach. Why? Because it frees the Holy Spirit to guide the thoughts and words of the homilist. At the same time, preparing and delivering sermons is a skill that requires attention, perspiration, and revision. There are very few natural born preachers. Most good preachers just make it look effortless because they work hard preparing their sermons.

There are a variety of approaches to sermon preparation and delivery. Write it out and read it. Write it out and memorize it. Write it out and reduce it to an outline and use the outline when preaching. Write it out, reduce it to outline and memorize the outline. Write an outline and refer to the outline and notes as necessary in delivering the sermon. Write only an outline and commit it to memory.

It is never acceptable to show up and just start talking. This is especially true when preaching in a language that is not our mother tongue — no matter how well we think we speak that second language. Stream of consciousness worked for Hunter S. Thompson. For the rest of us, it only creates fear and loathing in the hearts of our listeners.

Preachers should record their sermons and listen to them. This helps us spot the linguistic quirks (rushing, not letting a period be a cadence, filler words such as “you know,” etc.) that keep our message from reaching the congregation.

Why all this attention to preaching? Is it to keep from being embarrassed? To look good? To gain favor? To justify a pay raise?

No. In the words of an older, much wiser priest, “When we preach, we are telling a group of people we love something that will save their lives.”

That’s why the craft of homiletics deserves so much attention.

The Homilist

Homiletics (Greek homiletikos, from homilos, to assemble together), in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific work of public preaching.

The one who practices or studies homiletics is called a homilist.

Homiletics is one of those disciplines which is easy to do, but difficult to do well.  The terms homily and sermon are often used interchangeably (see the glossary for an exacting definition).  The art of homiletics is not to be undertaken lightly or casually, but with much prayer, and not a little fasting.

The crafting of the homily is a lot like writing a song. There are millions of songs out there, and more being written every day, but few being sung. Few touch a chord within the listener. Few get inside, so to speak. The turn of the phrase is not extemporaneous, but exacting. The measure of language, inflection, delivery and even diction should be prayerfully considered.  It is an awesome and fearful thing to stand in the fire.

How much more to deliver it?

We Preach Christ Crucified

Welcome to The Preachers Institute.

The Preachers Institute is an Orthodox Christian Homiletics Resource site, which will soon be offering articles, workshops, seminars and exercises designed to assist and improve the oratorical exposition of the Gospel in the Orthodox Christian Church.

As St. Paul says,

But we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

1 Cor. 1:23-24

There will be some terrific material on this site shortly, contributed by some of the best teachers, preachers and homilists in the English speaking Orthodox world.

Check back soon. We’re just getting started.