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Persuasion

It's not enough to get a passage right. We also need to get it across. Preaching requires homiletical skills, from understanding our audience to making powerful applications. This course provides instruction to give students tools, models, and opportunities for understanding and using contemporary homiletics (informed by classical rhetoric) to aid biblical exposition.

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Instructors

HELM

David Helm

Lead Pastor, Christ Church (Chicago)

David serves as the lead pastor of Christ Church Chicago and Chairman of the Board of the Charles Simeon Trust, an organization dedicated to the sound preaching of God’s Word. Before that, he served as Lead Pastor in the Hyde Park congregation of Holy Trinity Church. A graduate of Wheaton College, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, David is ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and serves on the council of The Gospel Coalition. For Crossway, he authored 1 & 2 Peter and JudeThe Big Picture Story Bible, and contributed to Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching in Honor of Kent Hughes. He also authored One-to-One Bible Reading for Matthias Media and the 9Marks volume Expositional Preaching.

CHARLES

H.B. Charles, Jr.

Pastor, Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church

H.B. Charles, Jr. is the pastor-teacher of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. H.B. has served in this role since 2008. He also serves as the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference’s first African-American president. Prior to joining his present church, H.B. led the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California for almost 18 years.  Outside of his ministry to and with his congregation, H.B. regularly speaks at churches, conferences, and conventions around the country, and he is also the author of several books.

CHAPELL

Bryan Chapell

Senior Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church

Bryan Chapell is Senior Pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria and formerly president and professor of practical theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. His Bible teaching can be heard daily via the Internet on Living Christ 360 (www.livingchrist360.com). Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Chapell was a pastor for approximately ten years before joining the faculty of Covenant Seminary, the seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), in 1985. He is the author of many articles and numerous books, including Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus’ Name, Why Do We Baptize Infants?, Holiness by Grace, Each for the Other, and Christ-Centered Preaching, a preaching textbook now in multiple editions and many languages that has established him as one of the nation’s foremost teachers of homiletics.

BULLMORE

Mike Bullmore

Senior Pastor, CrossWay Community Church

Mike serves as Senior Pastor of CrossWay Community Church in Bristol, Wisconsin. Mike earned a diploma in Bible and Theology at Moody Bible Institute and a BA in Biblical Studies from Wheaton College. He then earned an MDiv and ThM from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, followed by a PhD in Rhetorical History and Criticism from Northwestern University. Prior to leading the launch of CrossWay Community Church in 1998, Mike served for 15 years as an Associate Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, as well as chairman of the Practical Theology Department at TEDS. He also serves on the council of The Gospel Coalition.

KINNEY

Robert Kinney

Clergy, Christ Church (Vienna)

Robert serves on the clergy team at Christ Church in Vienna, Austria (Church of England, Diocese in Europe). He also serves as the Director of Ministries of the Charles Simeon Trust, where he has served since 2005. Robert earned a bachelor’s degree in Early Christian Literature at the University of Chicago, an MS in Communications (Journalism) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a PhD in New Testament at the University of Bristol in England. His dissertation was published by Mohr Siebeck in the WUNT II series as Hellenistic Dimensions of the Gospel of Matthew: Background and Rhetoric. He previously served as a pastoral intern at Holy Trinity Church for six years (2002-2008) and later as University Minister (2012-2014). He is a Fellow at the Center for Pastor Theologians and also serves on the Boards of the Charles Simeon Trust of Canada and Prédica Fiel in Cuba.

Overview

It's not enough to get a passage right. We also need to get it across. Preaching requires homiletical skills, from un...More
It's not enough to get a passage right. We also need to get it across. Preaching requires homiletical skills, from understanding our audience to making powerful applications. This Course provides instruction to give students tools, models, and opportunities for understanding and using contemporary homiletics (informed by classical rhetoric) to aid biblical exposition.
Download Syllabus
Lesson 1

Ethos

David HelmIn this lesson, David Helm shows that a preacher's character is an essential part of establishing credibility en route to persuading any audience.
Lesson 2

Audience

David HelmIn this lesson, David Helm encourages us to consider our audience and how we might present our argument most persuasively to them. 
Lesson 3

Argument

David HelmIn this lesson, David Helm makes the case that it isn't simply enough to give information in our sermons. Rather, in our sermons we must aim to convince our hearers of a passage's main point. 
Lesson 4

Arrangement

Robert KinneyIn this lesson, Robert S. Kinney helps us begin to think about the parts of a sermon and what we should keep in mind when arranging them in order to persuade. 
Lesson 5

Application

David HelmIn this lesson, David Helm offers six practical strategies for how make faithful and potent application from a biblical text. 
Lesson 6

Adornment

Robert KinneyIn this lesson, Robert S. Kinney helps us consider the aspects that help "dress up" our sermons in ways that serve to emphasize the main point of the sermon - and not detract from it.
Lesson 7

Aspects of Delivery

Mike BullmoreMike Bullmore shows us how we can better serve our congregations by considering aspects of our delivery.
Lesson 8

Prayer

H.B. Charles, Jr.In this opening lesson, H. B. Charles, Jr. argues that since prayer was a priority for Jesus in his ministry, it must be a priority for us as well.
Bonus Feature

The Place and Proportion of Application?

Bryan ChapellIn this lesson, Bryan Chapell helps us think through what application can look like in our sermons. 
Bonus Feature

The Power of Application

Bryan ChapellIn this instruction, Bryan Chapell demonstrates that application is an essential element of every sermon. 
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Course Resources

Here you'll find course documents and other helps for the course that are all available for download.