Preaching is best learned and improved when preachers receive excellent, supportive reflection on their lived experiences and sermons. For nearly ten years at Vanderbilt Divinity School a group of scholars and practicing preachers joined together to develop and hone several models of peer-group and individual coaching. In this book, they describe the key dimensions of "collaborative coaching," a learner-centered approach to coaching that emphasizes covenant-building, deep spiritual curiosity, care-filled listening, ethical awareness, attention to bodies and places, parallel learning, careful sermon analysis, and the art of asking excellent questions. In the final section of the book, practitioners provide examples of this kind of coaching in practice.
Sensing Worship delves into the sensory experience of worship in white, mainline Protestant churches, exploring the often intangible “energy” that shapes how worship feels. Drawing on affect theory, emotion studies, and practical theology, the book uncovers the embodied, social, and non-representational dimensions of worship that influence individuals’ engagement with liturgy. Through storytelling and analysis, the author investigates how these elements circulate among worshippers, offering new insights into how the atmosphere of worship can be both shaped and harnessed. Sensing Worship presents a fresh perspective on the connections between feeling, practice, and theology in contemporary worship.
