The course introduces key issues related to Christian preaching and teaching. Key elements are reflections on how to prepare a sermon and work with the Biblical text, secondly, how the preacher prepares his/her own heart for the tasks of preaching and teaching, and thirdly, how to communicate Christian faith in contemporary, secular contexts.
Depending on the number students attending in seminars, teaching amounts to 40-50 hours of classroom instruction and is mainly given through lectures, seminars and practical work with discussion and preparation of sermons and teaching sessions.
Knowledge
The students have:
- knowledge of key issues related to Christian teaching and preaching.
- knowledge of various form of preaching genres, their structure and most important elements.
- knowledge of the challenges the preacher meets when preaching in different contexts and to people of different worldviews.
- knowledge of key issues related to Christian faith education, with an emphasis on the passing of faith from one generation to the next.
Skills
The students can:
- explain and discuss preaching in light of different contexts (e.g. a sermon in a church or an evangelistic message to secularized people).
- explain and discuss central issues related to Christian education and passing of faith from one generation to the next.
- plan, carry out and critically reflect on their own preaching and teaching.
To be eligible for final assessment you must:
Attend a minimum of 70 % of the lectures (cf. chap. 5.5)
* Students who don’t complete the attendance requirement, must retake the course the next time it is offered.
* See the document “Attendance Regulations for Fjellhaug International University College” for more details.
The final assessment of this course portfolio assessment. To submit the portfolio, the following course requirements must be completed.
Course Requirements:
- Write and preach a 15-20-minute sermon on a given Bible text.
- Give feedback on a fellow student’s sermon in the preaching group.
- Prepare and undertake a 15-20-minute teaching session (topic and context must be preselected).
* This course requirement can either be done individually or together with a fellow student. If it’s done with a fellow student, the session must last for 25-30 minutes.
Comments Final Assessment:
| Form of assessment | Grading scale | Comment |
| Portfolio | Pass/Fail | The sermon manuscript and a self-evaluation of the sermon (750-1000 words), and a self-evaluation of the teaching session (750-1000 words). Final assessment is based on the portfolio. |
The course will be graded Pass or Fail.
If you fail to pass, you may submit a revised version of the portfolio in the period for new and postponed exams.
Some readings are available digitally on the school’s learning management system (LMS) and are marked with *.
Christian Preaching
Keller, Timothy (2015): Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism. New York: Viking. (240 p.)
Kim, Matthew D (2017): Preaching with Cultural Intelligence – Understanding the People Who Hear Our Sermons. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, pp. 3-61; 95-125; 157-213 (140 p.)
Faith Education
Dahle, Margunn Serigstad (2017): «Worldview Formation and the Disney Universe: A Case-Study on Media Engagement in Youth Ministry», i Journal of Youth and Theology. Volume 16 (1) (s. 60-80) (https://doi.org/10.1163/24055093-01601005). (20 p.)
Maddix, Mark A. and James Riley Estep Jr. (2017): Practicing Christian Education: An Introduction for Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic (170 p.)
Mc.Dowell, Sean and J. Warner Wallace (2019): So the Next Generation Will Know: Preparing Young Christians for a Challenging World. Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, (170 p.)
