BUIES CREEK, North Carolina — The Campbell University Divinity School will host the 2016 Elevating Preaching conference on the university’s main campus in Buies Creek on Monday, Oct. 3.
“I count it a privilege for Campbell University Divinity School to host the 2016 Elevating Preaching Conference,” said Campbell Divinity Dean Andy Wakefield. “This event not only highlights the importance of preaching, but seeks to equip and inspire ministers to hone their preaching skills.”
Elevating Preaching is a one-day Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) conference and will feature Walter Brueggemann, who is considered to be one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the last several decades, as lecturer and preacher.
Joining Brueggemann as conference speakers are John Kinney, Dean of the School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, and Dorisanne Cooper, Senior Pastor at Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham.
The conference begins with a morning worship service and continues with lectures, lunch, and a closing worship service.
“Preaching matters. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, the quality of preaching at a church is the most important factor that influences Americans’ decisions about whether to join,” continued Dean Wakefield. “But preaching cannot be, must not be, reduced to an expedient means for attracting new members. Preaching matters when it powerfully and provocatively calls the people of God to engage deeply with the Biblical text. Preaching matters when it urges us all to move beyond the comfort of self-righteousness to the risk of active obedience. Preaching matters when it calls us into the presence of God Himself.”
In addition to Campbell Divinity hosting in 2011, past hosts of this CBF annual event have been Gardner-Webb School of Divinity (2012), Wake Forest School of Divinity (2013), and Duke Baptist House of Studies (2014).