My most recent piece of writing for The Canadian Lutheran appeared online last week. Entitled “Stuttering Kings and Imperfect Pastors,” the article discusses parallels between the themes of communications explored in the Academy Award wining The King’s Speech and the same issues as they manifest themselves in the office of the preacher.

Now, I can hear you wondering, “Who is this guy to talk about preaching? He’s not a pastor!” True enough. I’m not a pastor. That’s not to say, of course, that I have no experience with the skills involved in public speaking. I’ve had the opportunity to speak at a fair amount of Christian events during my university years. I’ve also served as a homilist (a lay-reader of sermons prepared by ordained ministers) in my home church. And my thesis work focused specifically on rhetoric and preaching in 16th century England. But I am quite willing to admit that none of these things are quite the same thing as having a calling to be a pastor. When it comes down to it, I suppose my best claim to being able to talk about sermons comes from having sat through so many of them over the past 23 years. At 54 Sundays a year (plus midweek services here and there), the number of sermons tends to add up rather quickly.

For those of you concerned that the article might therefore be merely a layperson’s thoughts on preaching, set your minds at rest. The article is actually an exploration of the thoughts of local Regina pastor Ted Giese. Of course, I add a few thoughts of my own in the text (particularly near the end when I quote Martin Luther and speak about the appropriate response of laypeople to the sermon). But in general, this article comes from the pastoral viewpoint. As such, it gives laypeople a fantastic opportunity to explore what preaching is like from the pastor’s perspective. It also, I hopes, gives clergy an opportunity to reflect anew upon what it is they are called to do at the pulpit each Sunday.

If you’re interested in reading some of my other published writings, you can check out this page here. It lists a number of articles I have written which can be read online for free.