Using a seminar and workshop format, this course explores the relationship between speech communication, content, form, and style in communicating and embodying the gospel. Particular attention will be given to speaking techniques for verbal presentation, learning from cultures that possess a rich oral heritage, and the role of the body in different modes of communication. It will also highlight the significant role of unspoken, sensory communication, and the power of liturgies.

In this course we will wrestle theologically with the praxis of creatively communicating the gospel in the unique, diverse spaces to which we have been called exploring means and mediums of communication most effective for these spaces. The course will have a focus on communication—understood expansively, which includes public speaking, creating content for social media and websites, expressing yourself clearly in podcasts and vlogs, and writing to publish. Topics explored will include digital theology, contextualizing the gospel for individuals and communities in a dominant digital world, creating gospel narratives for public spaces, and leading and equipping others to form their own contextualized narratives of communicating the gospel in their own unique physical and digital spaces.

Designed to deepen our understanding of how to communicate the gospel in different parts of the biblical text as a theological and pastoral activity of proclamation in the world. Different topics are offered each year. The emphasis is on how one can practice intergenerational and intercultural proclamation of the Word in the places of ministry to which we are called.