Personal Narrative: Personal Theology Of Preaching

Personal Theology of Preaching As a preacher, I see myself taking on the image of multiple different preachers depending on the people of the congregation. My focus is on the congregation, and according to Thomas Long, this makes me very pastoral in nature. “Preaching should intentionally seek a beneficial change in the hearers [and] should help people make sense of their lives.” For me, this points to more than just the image of the pastor as preacher – it points to what kind of preacher image that I chose to take on. This is because the congregation, the body of Christ, is a living and dynamic body of people. In order to help people to make sense of their lives, make changes in their lives, and learn new things, I need to be aware of what

In this training, I learned that all people are learners. John Amos Comenius, a bishop of the Moravian Church in the 17th century, strongly believed in this as well. He believed that “learning is a divine gift” and that God gave every human the ability to learn about the earth, about our lives, and about God. But learning comes in all types of forms. Even though people learn in and by different paces, places, languages, vocabulary, methods, and past experiences, all people can learn. Therefore since there are so many situations and so many perspectives in which people are learning from, then it is also appropriate for education to incorporate many different tactics to reach all the different kinds of learners. In other words, it is up to the educator to communicate and teach things in a way that others will understand

The leading Moravian theologian of that time, Luke of Prague, refined what the Essentials are: God creates, God redeems, and God sanctifies and because of these things, humans respond with faith, love, and hope. These are things that all Christians share. Without the Essentials, a Christian is not a Christian, and a church is not a church. Luke defined Ministerials as gifts from God. They “mediate the work of God in salvation but do not save in themselves.” These are things like the Bible, the Sacraments, the Rites, and the Church. Lastly, Incidentals are made up of everything else – from the way things are done to the actual objects and buildings that make up a church. Ministerials and Incidentals should point to the Essentials. If they do not, then they should be done differently or not at