2014 Festival Update

Things are in order for the 2014 National Festival of Young Preachers. Have you registered yet? There are a some preaching slots still open but hurry! All of the program/advertising space is sold. All of the workshops are set; see the link to that list. Getting ready for Indianapolis!

Listen to one of the Young Preachers!

Lyvonne Briggs, AoP '13...speaking at last year's Preachapoolza

   More Reading and Resources

List and Link to all 2013 National Festival Sermon Videos




Register Now for 2014 National Festival in Indianapolis

Featured Articles

President Kurtz

by Dwight Moody

Joseph Kurtz has had plenty of titles in his long and distinguished career: deacon, priest, father, director, bishop, and archbishop (to name a few). Now he adds another: president.....of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

I pay attention to this because he is my friend, and because he is a friend of the Academy of Preachers. Read More

A Young Preacher's
AoP Testimony

by Mary Alice Birdwhitstell, AoP '10

A testimony from a young preacher, Mary Alice Birdwhistell, AoP '10, now associate pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Waco, TX:

Almost four years ago, I participated in the inaugural Festival of Young Preachers in Louisville, Kentucky.

I was nervous and intimidated to preach one of my very first sermons to a room full of people I believed to be experts in the field of preaching, but what I found was a community of people who believed in me, affirmed me, challenged me, and blessed me as a young preacher. When I look back on the past four years, I know that the weekend of the National Festival was a pivotal time for me in discerning my call to pastoral ministry and in developing the confidence to follow that call.
Read More

A Word from Dwight A. Moody

In less than two months 120 young preachers, plus several hundred friends, family, and festival-goers, will gather in the Sheraton Center City hotel and Christ Church Cathedral nearby to launch the 2014 National Festival of Young Preachers.

These 120 young preachers will pay their own way; our accommodation package of $351 for three nights and six meals is an excellent deal, but it strains the budgets of many young preachers. On top of the room and board, most have significant travel expenses.

To help some of them cover these costs we have several scholarships available, including the Tom Moody Preaching Scholarships, launched earlier this year in memory of my dad. Some schools provide grants, as do a couple of denominational entities.

But the big cost of the festival is not addressed by these scholarships.

We do not charge the young preachers for the cost of the conference itself: printing, publicity, design, expenses and stipends for event staff, honoraria and expenses for guest preachers, musicians, and/or workshop leaders, snacks and gifts, and a dozen other little things. These costs mount up...to more than $500 per young preacher.

This is the money we seek to raise from individual and organizational donors.

This is an opportunity for you to support the only national initiative that seek to identify, network, support, and inspire young people in their call to gospel preaching.

They need your help; we need your help.

Your gift of $500 will support one student attending the Festival. Your gift of $5,000 will cover the cost of an entire portion of the Festival, like the Gospel Slam, or the workshops, or PREACHAPALOOZA.

The Academy of Preachers is a non-profit corporation chartered in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 non-profit entity. All financial matters related to the AoP are handled by an independent tax firm in collaboration with our institutional host, Middletown Christian Church in Louisville.

Call me, at 859-229-8642, to discuss how you can help the Academy of Preachers fulfill its mission.

Special Edition November 2013

Donate today to the

Tom Moody Preaching Scholarship!

We have received $16,500 in pledges and gifts.

We need your Support!

Donate Now

Order your copy of the book today!

Book of Sermons from the 2013 National Festival of Young Preachers:: Uncommon Sense $22

502-245-9793

Wyndee

By Wyndee Holbrook

WOW!

Preachapalooza and Gospel Slam will feature exciting new elements at the 2014 Festival of Young Preachers.

Dr. Everett McCorvey, Festival Music Director and Director of the acclaimed American Spiritual Ensemble, invites you to lift your voice with the ASE and form the Preachapalooza Choir!

Twenty-five Festival folks will have the opportunity to rehearse on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the spectacular voices of the ASE in preparation to perform at the Preachapalooza on Saturday night.

The opportunity is open to everyone but with the limit of 25 people. If you want to be sure you are in that number, contact Wyndee Holbrook today wyndee@academyofpreachers.net

Dr. Valerie Bridgeman is this year's Gospel Slam Director and she's giving it the slam treatment! All forms of speech continue to be welcome in the three minute responses to scripture, but the level of competition will be heightened with rounds of performance scored by a panel of judges. The crowd will cheer on the performers and the energy will be electric as young people creatively express their faith while exploring "Questions of the Soul." Full details are available at www.gospelslam.net

The Academy of Preachers seeks to Identify, Network, Support and Inspire young people in their call to Gospel preaching.