Prepare, resource, equip and coach for homiletic excellence is what drives and defines the new PREACH lab located in the Reade Liberal Arts Center.
The training room comes with many tools to help those using it: a one-way window, speakers, microphones, cameras, streaming screens, a podium and rollable desks.
One wall will display four-foot-tall pictures of influential preachers throughout history, as if walking through time. The photos will face a wooden cross.
Skip Trudeau, vice president for student development and intercollegiate athletics, obtained a $1.25 million grant from the Lily Endowment Inc. To receive this grant from the Lily Endowment Inc., the applicant had to present their idea and make a request for the desired grant.
Hours of research, writing and planning went into making their pitch compelling, he said.
“We realized that most people who had been doing this part of this grant were really focusing on existing pastors, and they are certainly part of what we’re doing,” Trudeau said. “There are not many people looking about creating the next generation.”
Taylor staff revised the original ideas for the PREACH lab before getting it approved. The Lily Endowment Inc. liked the proposal.
The original name for the lab was the Taylor University Compelling Preaching Lab. However, President Lindsay requested the title to be shorter.
Trudeau’s wife, Jennifer Trudeau, was able to help him come up with the acronym for PREACH which is what is in use now.
The team realized the PREACH lab needed an active weekly practitioner, and then they found their guy: Timothy McConnell.
McConnell, director of the PREACH institute, is a pastor in Colorado Springs with a congregation of approximately 3,000 people. He will fly to Indiana multiple times a month to teach students and help mentor them through their homiletic journey.
“I am humbled and excited to be a part of what God is doing at Taylor,” McConnell said. “I think the impact of this generation is going to be incredible to watch.”
He recognized that students are going to be called by God to preach the Word in one way or another. He looks forward to seeing young people’s confidence shift after having access to well-rounded training.
Gregory Dyson, vice president for spiritual life & intercultural leadership and campus pastor, mentioned the opportunity to fly students out to Colorado to train and be in a real-world environment.
The PREACH lab will have six classes. McConnell will teach two of the courses.
A rotation of guest speakers will also teach classes.
Dyson hopes this lab will also bring opportunities for guest chapel speakers to teach students different techniques. Beyond campus, existing pastors would have the chance to attend a conference-like setting as well.
“We feel like we need to be able to respond to our students faster, and this means thinking about some what-if’s,” Dyson said.
Some of the “what-if’s” have been made a reality. To honor great pastors all over the world who wholeheartedly serve the Lord and share his message well, a special award will be handed out once a year.
This serves as an opportunity for pastors to be recognized for the good work they are doing.
Another “what-if” is to create a homiletic minor. Outside the typical school hours, classes will be available to any student who wants to add on a homiletic minor, fitting their schedule.
The PREACH initiative team encourages people to begin considering a homiletic minor now and to be on the lookout for classes when they are made available in the fall.
“Having this room demonstrates what we want to do,” Dyson said. “It creates a place for it.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held for the opening of the lab on April 25. The lab will be called the Richard Allen Farmer PREACH Lab, in honor of a Taylor alumnus.
Farmer attended Taylor and later served as the campus pastor 25 years ago.
“He embodied the spirit of what we’re trying to do, because Richard was so good in the pulpit, and it didn’t matter who you were or where you were coming from,” Trudeau said. “He could connect you, and it was so compelling.”
One of Dyson’s favorite memories of Farmer was when he would walk into a room and ask for three thoughts about God, then three music notes, then he would create a song.
Dyson commented that Farmer inspired Taylor Staff to help people grow in powerful ways to where their words and their actions line up.
“Teaching them how to preach is actually teaching them how to live,” Dyson said.
