A Preaching Coach

This week I am a preaching coach. I have helped to coach soccer and baseball—meaning that I watched the kids on the sidelines, picked up the bats and kept up with the batting rotation. Being a preaching coach is a bit different. The Academy of Preachers is holding its first preaching camp at a wonderful Christian retreat center in southern Indiana. There are twelve young preachers, women and men, ranging in age from about 16-28. Some have never attended a seminary. Some have recently graduated from divinity school.

They come from a myriad of denominations—Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Nazarene, and non-denominational. They have all gathered with a common purpose—to improve their preaching skills. During their time here they will be preaching a 6-8 minute sermon each day.

My job as coach is to review those sermons on video with four of the young preachers assigned to me. I am also to offer assistance as they prepare for the next day’s sermon. I am learning to pull from my years of pastoral experience and my coach training to help these young preachers in the short time we are together. I am encouraged by their enthusiasm for communicating the Good News of the Gospel to our world. They desire to be relevant and they yearn to make a difference in the lives of individuals and churches. Already I have heard some very good sermons and I’m sure I can look forward to hearing more in the days ahead. I am amazed at the energy these young people have for a vocation that is no longer given the respect that it once knew and does not find itself in the top lists of ways to make a living. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised because God has always worked in ways that leave us amazed.

Now that I think about it coaching young preachers is not that different from coaching a T-ball team. They both dream of hitting a home run—one with a bat the other with words; they both feel a bit of uncertainty as they step up to the plate; and, they both wouldn’t choose to do or be anything else because they simply love it. Seeing all that adds a certain sense of reward to my job as a coach.

I know that I won’t be a preacher forever. I have been preaching for over twenty years now. I look forward to many years of preaching yet. But one day, though I will continue to share God’s love with others, I may not be doing so from a pulpit. It’s good to know that these young people sense God’s call to step in and continue the preaching ministry that has communicated God’s love to countless numbers of people throughout the ages.