While some Azusa Pacific University students choose to follow a career path of becoming a pastor, many others feel the call to preach, even if it isn’t their vocational field. To support these students, APU’s Institute for Faith, Leadership, and Service formed the Preaching Lab, with five cohorts running from 2024-28. Led by Annelyse Thomas, MDiv, the Preaching Lab supports and encourages preaching gifts of students to help them proclaim the Gospel to a variety of audiences in more engaging and effective ways.
The Preaching Lab is a free two-year program, supported by a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Compelling Preaching Initiative. Students are part of a small cohort and meet twice a month, with additional monthly one-on-one meetings with a pastor mentor. During the first year, students pick a passage of Scripture from the New Testament to preach on, working with Thomas to conduct research and create an exegesis of the text. “From there, we focus on the art and craft of preaching,” Thomas said. “It’s not just about doing an exegesis that is theologically sound, but also thinking about the needs and context of the congregation that you’re preaching to, and combining that in a way that’s faithful and honoring to the Scripture.”
At the end of the first semester, students deliver their New Testament sermon in front of a group of friends, family, faculty, and staff. Andrew Das ’28, a sophomore commercial music major with a Christian ministries minor, chose to do his sermon on Mark 12:28-34, where Jesus talks about the greatest commandment of loving the Lord and your neighbor. Throughout the semester, Das enjoyed the research and learning more about the passage, crafting his sermon with preparation help from Thomas. “When I finally gave the sermon, I was nervous and it took me a couple minutes to settle in, but after that I felt a powerful sense that it wasn’t fully me speaking,” he said. “I felt so inspired by the Holy Spirit and it felt like God was empowering my words that were coming out. It was amazing to know that after all my preparation, God was speaking through me. Glory to God, I surrender it all to Him, it wasn’t my own accomplishment, but Him working through me.” Rhyann Fainter ’27, a junior double major in biblical studies and honors humanities, felt similarly inspired during her sermon on Hebrews 12:1-3. “It was a challenging experience, but also a really great one to share in front of friends and family,” she said.
During the second semester of the program, students deliver a sermon on a passage of Scripture from the Old Testament, which Thomas said will likely be more challenging, but have the potential to be more powerful as well. Fainter, whose favorite book of the Bible is Genesis, looks forward to the challenge. “I love the creation story,” she said. “Aside from Psalms, I feel like most people don’t know a lot about the Old Testament. I’m excited to go deeper into a part of the Bible that isn’t preached about as much.”
In the second year of the program, students have an opportunity to re-preach either their Old Testament or New Testament sermons, with a twist. Instead of preaching in front of a small group, the students will preach to an actual congregation at a local church. Before this, they will be paired with a pastor mentor throughout the second year from that same church. “Having a pastor mentor will really help the students develop their voices and preaching style,” Thomas said. Daniel Aguirre ’28, a sophomore theology major, looks forward to working with his mentor Teddy Omondi, pastor of Friends Church Fullerton. “I’m definitely nervous about preaching to a congregation, but I’m also really excited to learn from Teddy to see different viewpoints and how he goes about sermon crafting,” Aguirre said.
Another major part of the second year programming is for students to develop their own Philosophy of Preaching statement. This assignment invents them to reflect on their developing understanding of preaching—why it matters, what it does, and how they approach it—articulating their own philosophy of preaching and demonstrating integration of what they’ve learned throughout the program. This is the culmination of the program as they have developed their voice and identity as a preacher.
The Preaching Lab is open to APU undergraduate students of all majors, not just those who are studying ministry or theology. “Some of our students know they want to go into ministry, while others just want to learn how to teach the word of God well,” Thomas said. Students receive a Preaching Lab certificate at the end of the program, a mark of all that they’ve learned about the craft of preaching. “I have been so impressed with their growth,” Thomas said.
Courtney Steinman ’26, a senior psychology and honors humanities double major with a minor in youth and family ministry, is grateful for the feedback she’s received from Thomas. “I’ve truly been transformed in my preaching ability because of the feedback and constructive criticism I’ve received from Annelyse and the other members of my cohort,” she said. “Having other perspectives changed my preaching from feeling like speeches to actual sermons. It’s been awesome to receive advice and wisdom from them. I carry a lot of what I’ve learned in Preaching Lab into my own faith and the way I study the Bible.” Fainter echoed Steiman’s sentiments, mentioning how much she’s grown through Preaching Lab. “I’ve done public speaking all of my life, but now I’m learning to speak in more influential and impactful ways,” she said. “I definitely recommend that other students join Preaching Lab because it will help develop, teach, and guide you. There’s no pressure to be perfect, so I hope other students join to be in a community where you’re not expected to be perfect and you can grow while having fun in their cohort.”