Third Annual Joe R. Engle Institute of Preaching to be held June 26 through July 1 at Princeton Seminary
—Designed to nurture and strengthen the craft of those who preach, whether weekly or occasionally, whether in city, suburb, small town, or rural community—
Princeton, NJ, June 14, 2005– Princeton Theological Seminary will welcome Master of Divinity graduates from the classes of 2000, 2001, and 2002, who are currently serving in a congregation or in some other ministry context and who have some regular responsibility for preaching and worship, to the third annual Joe R. Engle Institute of Preaching Sunday, June 26 through Friday, July 1. This year’s theme is “Refining the Practice of Preaching.”
The 2005 class of Engle Fellows is the Seminary’s largest and most diverse group to date, numbering 63 pastors, 50 of whom are graduates of Princeton Seminary. For the first time, the institute will include pastors who are not Princeton graduates, and 13 professors from outside of the Seminary’s own faculty.
The Engle Institute, envisioned and made possible by the dream and generosity of Joe R. Engle, a member of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, is designed to nurture and strengthen the craft of those who preach, whether weekly or occasionally, whether in city, suburb, small town, or rural community. It offers a unique, interactive approach to preaching renewal. Rather than highlight a slate of national pulpit “stars,” the institute is designed to encourage and nurture pastors who preach regularly in local contexts. Through hands-on workshops, seminars, tutorials, and conversations, Engle Fellows are supported and challenged to seek excellence in their preaching vocations.
The tone of the institute is collegial. Engle Fellows and faculty participate together in the hospitality of the seminar room, the dinner table, and the chapel pew. Daily seminars and workshops address a wide variety of topics ranging from the theology that undergirds preaching to the practical, but crucial, matters of sermon delivery. Some workshops are in lecture format, while others include a preaching practicum.
The institute coincides with the second week of the two-week Princeton summer Institute of Theology (IOT). Engle Fellows and IOT participants meet together each morning for a Bible study and convocation lecture, and share in evening worship. This year’s Bible study leader is William Brown, professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. The convocation lecturer is Barbara K. Lundblad, associate professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
The faculty consists of workshop leaders, a preacher/pastor-in-residence, a director, and a coordinator. This year’s preacher/pastor-in-residence is Jon M. Walton, pastor and head of staff of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City.
Other faculty members include (from the Princeton Seminary faculty) James F. Kay, institute director and the Joe R. Engle Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics; Kristin Saldine, institute coordinator and minister of the chapel; Charles Bartow, the Carl and Helen Egner Professor of Speech Communication in Ministry; Michael Brothers, assistant professor of speech communication in ministry; Sally Brown, assistant professor of preaching and worship; Nancy Lammers Gross, the Arthur Sarell Rudd Associate Professor of Speech Communication in Ministry; and Randy Nichols, director of the D.Min. program and lecturer in theology and communication.
Jerry Carter, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Morristown, New Jersey, David Davis, pastor of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, and Fleming Rutledge, an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of New York, will complete the Engle Institute faculty.
Workshops include “Preaching on the Cross in a Violent World,” “Person of the Preacher,” “Reclaiming Paul from the Jaws of Difficult Texts,” and “The Prophetic Word in Apocalyptic Times.”
For more information, contact the Engle Institute of Preaching at 609-430-2771 or engle.institute@ptsem.edu.
