That's a pity that John Swinton's away just now.  I'll have a think and see what I else I can come up with.

I was wondering at what stage you are in your training, and how it is organised.

I'm with the Church of Scotland and my training involved studying at university (no seminaries here) for a Bachelor of Divinity degree while also undertaking church placements working alongside and being supervised by the ordained minister.  I had two 25 week part-time placements while I was at uni, one 10 week full-time placement, and am now coming to the end of my probationary placement which was 15 months full-time.  I also had to attend a total of 9 compulsory training conferences which each lasted between 3 and 5 days, and there was usually at least one session on preaching or conduct of worship at most of those.

For me, and many of my colleagues, the hardest part initially about preaching was the temptation to try to say everything all in one go.  Learning how to focus your research and then pare it down again, and again, and maybe again, for a sermon is really difficult, but it's a valuable skill.

This post was last modified: 02-13-2011 03:14 AM by Marcia.