Sermon Coaching Groups
As one component of our collaborative project, “Compelling Preaching for a Climate-Changed World,” Lexington Theological Seminary, The BTS Center, and Creation Justice Ministries invite preachers to apply to be part of a six-month Sermon Coaching Group starting in January 2025.
January 2025 – June 2025
Applications closed as of December 14. If you are interested in applying for a future sermon coaching group, please contact: carolyn.sharp@yale.
Groups will meet monthly for six sessions beginning January 2025.
Each participant will:
- attend six monthly 90-minute meetings on Zoom for relationship-building, sermon feedback, and theological reflection
- craft and preach an ecologically focused sermon, recording it for the group to watch prior to the scheduled feedback circle for that sermon
- view the recorded sermons of group members and give thoughtful feedback in the Zoom gatherings
- preach a second sermon in a format different from their standard design and for an audience other than their regular listeners
- write a theological reflection (500 to 750 words) on the learnings and challenges of this experience
- participate in a group exit interview with the Program Director, the Homiletician in Residence, and a member of The BTS Center research team
2.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be offered for attendance at all six Zoom gatherings plus the group exit interview, completion of two sermons, and submission of the written reflection.
The first meeting will be in January 2025. If your application is accepted, you will be contacted by your Sermon Coach about the specific date and time. Groups will choose their future meeting days and times at the first gathering.
Questions can be directed to the Homiletician in Residence, Carolyn J. Sharp, at carolyn.sharp@yale.edu
Meet the Facilitators
Susan McGurgan is Associate Professor of Theology and Director of the Lilly Compelling Preaching Initiative at Marian University, Indianapolis. She earned a D.Min. in Preaching from Seabury-Western and has taught preaching in a variety of settings to seminarians, permanent deacons and lay ministers. She served as President of the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, and as member-at-large and Convenor of the Theology of Preaching Work Group of the Academy of Homiletics. In 2020, she was the Marten Visiting Fellow of Preaching at the University of Notre Dame, and in 2021, launched Preaching Hope, a website offering resources and support for working preachers. preachinghope.org
Rev. Dr. Katrina J. Olson is a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America and currently serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. She earned her PhD in Religion, specializing in Homiletics and Liturgics from Vanderbilt University in 2022. She is a Homiletical Peer Coach and, alongside teaching introductory preaching courses, has taught electives in embodied homiletics, preaching in suffering contexts, and cultivating formative faith through preaching and liturgy. Kat loves working with current and future ministry leaders, helping them follow their call to build up God’s gospel goodness in the world.
Program Partnership
The Sermon Coaching Groups are one component of a larger program, “Compelling Preaching for a Climate-Changed World,” a collaborative project of Lexington Theological Seminary, The BTS Center, and Creation Justice Ministries that is made possible by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.
The mission of Lexington Theological Seminary is to prepare faithful leaders for the church of Jesus Christ and, thus, to strengthen the church’s participation in God’s mission for the world. Lexington Theological Seminary seeks to be a servant of the church preparing men and women for ministry in congregations through:
- innovative instruction
- flexible curriculum
- congregational experience
- compassionate engagement with the needs of society
The Seminary offers an online program that is competency-based, congregation-centered and developmental in its commitment to prepare people for leadership in congregational ministry. As an integral part of the church, the seminary serves the church as a theological resource and as a center of continuing education for clergy and lay leaders.
Creation Justice Ministries’ mission is to educate, equip and mobilize communions and denominations, congregations, and individuals to protect, restore, and rightly share God's creation. Creation Justice Ministries’ membership includes Baptist, Historically Black, Orthodox, Peace, and mainline Protestant traditions. With a particular concern for people who are most vulnerable and marginalized, Creation Justice Ministries provides collaborative opportunities to build ecumenical community, guides people of faith and faith communities towards eco-justice transformations, and raises a collective witness in the public arena echoing Christ's call for just relationships among all of creation.
With roots dating back to 1814, The BTS Center is a private operating foundation in Portland, Maine, building on the legacy of the former Bangor Theological Seminary. Today The BTS Center seeks to catalyze spiritual imagination, with enduring wisdom, for transformative faith leadership. Guided by the vision of human hearts renewed, justice established, and creation restored, The BTS Center offers theologically grounded programs of continuing education and spiritual / vocational formation, including workshops and retreats, learning cohorts, courses, public conversations, and projects of applied research, all with an intention to cultivate and nurture spiritual leadership for a climate-changed world.
