For the first time in its 43-year history of offering clergy workshops and consultations, St. George's House at Windsor Castle in London, England, will offer a consultation dedicated to the art of preaching.

The Rev. Tom Garrison. Photo Renata Garrison.

The Rev. Tom Garrison, pastor of Sun Lakes (Ariz.) UCC, is the first non-Anglican to be invited to teach in this setting. The conference, "The Art of Preaching: The Word in other Words," was chosen over 20 other programs submitted to St. George's.

Since the consultation is designed for experienced clergy, Garrison says that he "won't be teaching them how to preach. They know how to preach." Instead, he will "offer them other ways that they may let people hear the gospel." He will show them how talking with people instead of "preaching at" them helps to break down walls. Garrison also maintains that the skilled use of humor can open people up further, enabling them to hear something that is difficult.

He admits that preaching a sermon doesn't necessarily guarantee listeners will hear the message. He explains, "Just because you get people to hear the message in their head, until you find a way to move that message to their hearts, you will never change anyone."

Garrison says pastors tend to follow a certain method and style of preaching. When presented with a sermon that follows a different method or style, regular listeners may have a hard time "hearing" the sermon, while visitors may have no problem at all. Regular listeners, who recognize their pastor's voice, rhythm and the way he or she does things, may not even recognize that it is a sermon. If the participant's method of preaching is quite different from what he or she learns in the consultation, a slow transition to the new style may be necessary.

Garrison will teach on different aspects of homiletics, starting each day with a sermon. Then through questions and taking apart his sermon, he will show them how his sermon was put together. Participants will study how to build a sermon and map it. Connecting links in the map ensures that a sermon keeps moving in the right direction and serves as a memory tool.

He works from the framework that the Bible is composed of different types of literature that influence the way a sermon is designed. One narrative model, says Garrison, "follows a short story. It begins and gets your attention, moves to an apex and then lets you out quickly." Other models include preaching as imagination, story telling, inductive narrative, the split story and the "question that is really a test" model.

Through the lessons he teaches, he plans to "show them how to do it and how to help people not only intellectualize it, but also move it to their heart." "The quest" he says, "is how to be heard, not to be good."

Garrison's extensive background includes a doctoral degree in preaching. He has taught homiletics at two seminaries, authored two books on sermons and has pastored churches for over 25 years.

At St. George's House, clergy explore faith and the modern world with influential speakers and future leaders in a setting outside of the usual church hierarchy. The House funds the majority of the costs to make it affordable to clergy of all denominations and provides lodging in an elegant 17th-century mansion.

Humbled by St. George's request, but looking forward to the opportunity, Garrison says, "It is a wonderful honor to be invited to lead a course on the art of preaching surrounded by worship in St. George's Chapel, and sharing concepts that will be taken to so many places in the Kingdom of God."

Peggy Ice is the UCC's Southwest Conference Director of Communications and Resources.