Popular Searches
Engle Fellows select and take part in multiple workshops. Fellows select one workshop that meets in the morning over four days (Monday through Thursday) and two electives that meet in the afternoon. The size of each workshop is limited to allow for group interaction.
See below for an example of what the Engle Institute workshops are like. Each year we bring back some prior leaders and integrate new leadership. Workshops for 2026 will be updated in October. To see a sample schedule from a previous year, please review our Digital Booklet. Note: Participants must first apply and be accepted into the Institute as “Engle Fellows.”
(Mon-Thurs)
Michael A. Brothers
This workshop strives for a recovery of an oral/aural style of preaching. Particular attention will be given to writing for the ear, the use of a manuscript, preaching without a manuscript, visual engagement, improvisational speech, and body movement. Participants are to come prepared to preach a beginning and an ending from one or different sermons.
Jess Winderweedle
Historically, conversations within the Church involving the term “queer” have been about matters related to inclusion—topics like same-sex marriage or the ordination of LGBTQIA+ persons. But for the preacher, the term “queer” can be much more than a mere identity label. To “queer” preaching is to employ category-defying, subversive strategies of biblical interpretation and creative engagement—strategies that will recapture your congregation’s attention and expand their theological imagination in new ways. In this workshop, participants will experiment with some of these strategies, drawn in part from the practices of diverse LGBTQIA+ preachers from across Mainline Protestant traditions. The learnings from this workshop will enable preachers of all identities to harness their own self- and social-awareness as homiletical strengths, leading to deeper and more authentic connection with their listeners.
David Latimore
Using the Lazarus narrative of John 11, this workshop examines the homiletical opportunities presented by perspective criticism of biblical texts. The workshop will ask the question: How do the homiletical possibilities of a text shift depending on the perspective considered? The workshop will consider both the intended perspective of the author of the text and other perspectives found within the characters of the narrative. Finally, the workshop will offer participants an opportunity to consider how perspective criticism offers a place for the experiences of the homiletician to shape homiletical moment within the context of the biblical narrative.
Courtney Buggs
What would it mean in your preaching to focus on the widow of Zarephath and her son, rather than Elijah (1 Kings 17)? Or to ask what Hagar teaches us that Abraham cannot (Genesis 16-17)? This workshop introduces you to womanist preaching, a rich tradition that challenges preachers to read against the grain of the text and ask impolite questions—questions that center survival, resistance, and the flourishing of ALL people. You’ll encounter key voices in this tradition and explore how their wisdom might expand your own preaching practice. No prior knowledge of womanism required.
Sunggu Yang
This workshop invites participants to explore how the arts can deepen encounters with the Holy Presence and enrich the creative process of sermon preparation and delivery. Focusing on three artistic fields—film, architecture, and fashion—it offers a practical immersion in how aesthetic experiences can shape theological insight, embodied imagination, and congregational formation. Through guided reflections and exercises, participants will learn to translate artistic and biblical imagination into homiletical practices that foster attentiveness, presence, and vibrant, Spirit-filled preaching.
Through the use of storytelling exercises, this workshop will explore the performance of narratives in preaching. Particular attention will be given to show and tell involving narrator and eye contact, plot and suspense, imagery and setting, dialogue and characters, and moving the story along through gesture. Come prepared (or unprepared) to tell 2-4 minutes from a life story or biblical story from a past or future sermon.
To improve at any craft—artistic, athletic, or otherwise—practice is essential. But the best practice incorporates feedback gleaned from self-review (“watching game tapes”) and from soliciting input from others, preferably experts. And who listens to more sermons than anyone (including most pastors)? Your congregants! In this workshop, learn how to get your congregation more involved in the ministry of proclamation, from collaborative exegesis to active listening and feedback processes. Not only will you grow more effective as a preacher, but your congregants will become more deeply engaged listeners, too. Win-win!
Preaching is a marathon, not a weekly sprint. This workshop offers a pastoral, practical approach to sustaining a long-term preaching ministry with spiritual depth and emotional resilience. We’ll name the pressures that quietly erode preaching (performance anxiety, constant crisis response, congregational conflict) and the slow drift into recycled language or thin moralism and then build a workable “rule of life” for proclamation. Through brief input, case-based small-group work, and guided planning, participants will begin to design a sustainable weekly rhythm for sermon preparation, prayer, study, listening, and rest. You’ll leave with tools for staying honest, alive, and faithful over time.
What happens when you walk through a biblical story instead of just reading it? When you move through a scene up close? In this interactive workshop for pastors, you’ll encounter familiar texts through embodied play and reflect on how prayer can weave throughout your preaching practice—from preparation through delivery. Using movement, voice, and physical presence, we’ll explore what Scripture reveals when engaged prayerfully with our whole selves. Come ready to wonder, wander, and experience preaching as playful, prayerful work.
Welcome to the digital/online preaching exercise lab! Participants will actively experiment with five innovative styles—the Drama, Reporter, Interview, Cinematic, and Artistic approaches—to explore how digital environments open new possibilities for communication and connection. Grouped into teams of three to four, each team will select one of the five approaches and collaboratively produce a creative, smartphone-recorded sermonette video clip lasting two to three minutes for presentation. The goal is to engage in meaningful, creative teamwork while having fun exploring new modes of digital preaching.
