What's a preaching slam?
Think mash-up between a homiletics festival and a poetry slam. A half hour before we begin, our four preachers will receive the topic for their sermon. For our first go at this, they'll be given a famous work of art like a Jackson Pollack splatter painting for instance. They'll have a half hour to prep an extemporaneous bit of proclamation for the pew sitters in front of them.
Why a preaching slam?
For any sermon, a preacher needs to find a way to move from God's Word as text on a page to a real-time event when that Word is delivered from, let's say, a pulpit in worship. But preachers worth their salt are able to make the same move with any situation or context. They can go from an encounter with someone and their particular quandary to a good Word that delivers Christ's benefits to their hearer. A preaching slam helps our Preaching Fellows begin to see their calling as public proclaimers as going beyond chancels and pulpits to encounters on Athens' Areopagus.
