Westserve

A.I.M. Preaching Conference

Tim and I spent two days this week at the AIM preaching conference. These days, the conference is co-organised by MTS and the College of Preachers. Which means, we have both MTS Trainers/Apprentices and lots of other people engaged in teaching the Bible.

Being the week before Windana, both Tim and I were feeling a little stressed at taking two full days out, but I have to say it was so worthwhile.
The two main speakers were Bryson Smith (Senior Minister, Dubbo Presbyterian Church) and Phil Campbell (Senior Minister, Mitchelton Presbyterian Church, Brisbane).
The great things about having these two guys was the fact that they are both in pretty ordinary local churches, and are preaching week by week to regular congregations.
Bryson led us through the process of preparing a series of talks on Philippians. He let us ‘look over his shoulder’ as he went through the process of working out what the main point of the letter is. And then, how he allows the books itself to set the agenda for deciding how many talks there would be and what they would cover.
He also took us through his preparation for one of the actual talks, and preached another in the series for us to critique.
The extraordinary thing about Bryson’s work is that he prepares detailed drafts for all the talks in a series weeks before the series starts!
In the end, it’s no more work than doing a talk from scratch each week, but I admired the man’s organisation and self discipline in working that way.
The other bonuses from doing things Bryson’s way are:

• The one person ‘owns’ the series, and usually preaches all the talks in that series.
• Preparing drafts of talks so far ahead allows you to churn through the material in your head, and helps make real life connections to the material to use as illustrations or applications in the talks.

Phil Campbell’s contribution was different but just as helpful.
He took us through ‘Confessions of a reformed bore’ – Ten things to do (or avoid doing) to make your preaching less boring and more accessible to your congregations. Here they are (but with no explanations!):

1. The less you say, the more people will remember. Say less.
2. Stick to the big idea. Serve a set menu of ides, rather than a smorgasboard.
3. Use short words.
4. Use clear, direct sentences with an average of no more than 17 words.
5. Remember – people love to hear about people.
6. Write like you talk. Start sentences with ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘or’. Use contractions, etc.
7. Repeat three times at the start of a new point.
8. Tell stories in the present tense.
9. Illustrate the obvious.
10. Explain the verse, then show the verse.

Feel free to ask about any of those, and members of SNC can check and see if I put any into practise.

There were also workshops sessions on other topics in the afternoons.

The food was great, and the opportunity to connect with lots of other people doing ministry was excellent.

All up, two days very well spent.