Eastminster Presbytery’s interim general presbyter, Nancy Kahaian, had just started her service with the presbytery and was meeting with each pastor individually. I went to have a meal with her to bring up a particular concern in mind. In two Sundays I was going to be on vacation and I didn’t have pulpit supply. It wasn’t that I hadn’t tried. I already had called everyone on the presbytery’s very small pulpit supply list. I had tried further connections. No one was available. My last hope was that Nancy would be available to fill the pulpit for me. She did and I was able to take my vacation, but it revealed a larger problem within the presbytery.
Pastors need to take vacations and avail themselves of continuing education opportunities. I was not the only pastor who struggled to take a Sunday off because there were not people available to preach. Little did I know that my meal with Nancy Kahaian would prompt a new opportunity in Eastminster Presbytery: the Elder Preaching Institute.
Eastminster is a small presbytery filled with small churches in northeast Ohio. There are no associate pastors in the presbytery and very few retired pastors. Many of the churches are without pastoral leadership. There’s a longstanding recognition that ruling elders are eligible to preach. In their ordination vows, ruling elders promise to watch over the people, “providing for their worship, nurture, and service” (W-4.4003i). Ruling elders together with teaching elders are responsible for the life of a congregation, including worship. But how can we expect our elders to lead worship and preach if we don’t provide the training and resources necessary?
The Elder Preaching Institute was a six-week intensive course, open to all ruling elders who desired to learn Reformed theology and preaching skills — and was required for any elder who wanted to be considered for Eastminster’s pulpit supply list. The faculty consisted of three teaching elders and one commissioned ruling elder, all currently serving in the presbytery. Without a model, the faculty (of which I was a part) had to figure out how to create this course. With the guidance and suggestions of Pittsburgh Seminary’s homiletics faculty, we attempted the task of designing a course that was accessible and affirming, while also holding to high expectations. How in six weeks do you teach someone to preach?
Ultimately, the Elder Preaching Institute was designed around an apprenticeship model. By the third week, students were preaching three-minute sermons and each week after in some form they were standing up and proclaiming God’s Word.
The Elder Preaching Institute met for three hours once a week for six weeks. There was a high level of expectation for participants that included weekly reading assignments, the discipline of regular Scripture reading and sermon preparation outside of class.
For our instruction, we began with the foundations of Reformed worship and preaching. We talked about the spiritual discipline of preaching and the role of the Holy Spirit. We talked about how we listen to God, Scripture and each other. We modeled and practiced reading and interpreting Scripture using a variety of methods, while continually being in prayer. We focused on the importance of having a sermon come from the biblical text, teaching how we make the move from reading, prayer and study to deciding on a focus and function for our message. Building on each previous week, three-minute sermons became six-minute sermons, until they prepared a full 15-minute sermon. Their final assignment was preaching in a church of the presbytery, allowing more folks to be part of this process and providing the experience of preaching in front of a congregation.
The excitement and interest in the Elder Preaching Institute was inspiring to the whole presbytery. Not all of the students came expecting to become preachers. One woman decided to enroll, because she wanted to explore Scripture and to struggle with others through difficult texts. She named at the beginning that she had no desire to preach. Until the very end, she wasn’t sure if she was willing to preach in a congregation. She did and her sermons were thoughtful and inspiring. Others came because they had always wondered what it would be like to preach. A member of the committee on ministry joined the class because she had already preached once. She was excited for the opportunity to learn more and to gain resources that would help her with sermon preparation.
During one of the first class a student raised her hand and said: “I just don’t feel worthy enough to preach. Raise your hand if you feel ill-equipped for this task.” The whole room raised their hand, including the faculty. Together we were reminded that God does not call the worthy or the equipped, but God does give us the strength for the task.
The blessings of this class extended beyond growing the pulpit supply list. Several of the ruling elders said they had no idea how hard it is to write a sermon or how many hours are needed. Beth Loresch, one of the elders, said, “I have more respect for how long it takes; the prayer and preparation needed for each sermon.” She also said, “I learned that people hear me differently then I intend.”
Not everyone who went to the class chose to go before the committee on ministry to be placed on the pulpit supply list. For some, the importance was the journey. The process gave them permission and space to wrestle with Scripture, to deepen their own faith and to push themselves outside of their comfort zone.
Eastminster’s pulpit supply list now includes 11 ruling elders. These gifted, faithful and committed servants are preaching in our congregations regularly. I no longer have to worry if I will find someone to preach for me when I am away.
For me, these classes were a beautiful living example of our Reformed faith and Presbyterian identity: teaching elders and ruling elders struggling together to proclaim the Good News of Christ, to preach the Word faithfully and to serve our churches.
KRISTIN STROBLE serves as the pastor of the pastor of Eastminster Presbyterian Church in East Lansing, Michigan.
