For the past five years, Douglas Arthur has organized an event he calls a church builder's workshop. It was planned during times when many of our churches were thinking more about surviving than thriving. Each year it has grown in its scope and impact. This year, a very specific focus on preaching was targeted with the theme, "They Spoke So Effectively".

The workshop began with a welcome dinner on Monday, April 20. Old friends and new acquaintances drove, flew or took the train to the Fairfax Marriott in northern Virginia, a suburb of our nation's capitol. Some lively singing followed, headed up by Tony Martin from Baltimore.

Click Here to go to a slideshow of the event

The evenings keynote address was given by Mike Fontenot, elder and evangelist at Hampton Roads.  Mike’s title was “Making the Bible Come Alive,” and he spent some of his time emphasizing quality, exegetical preaching (from the text itself).  He called us as ministers to look for the speck of gold and not just state the obvious.  His plea was to make old truths fresh and to understand the context.

The first full day of our time together began with breakfast and more worship in song.  Then, Douglas and Joyce Arthur from the Boston church spoke on “Maximizing Impact.”  Douglas broke out Arabian proverbs, six “P” points, challenging texts, humorous illustrations and a notebook full of ideas.  Joyce added a special flavor by sharing what the women feel and sense as we preach.  Her honest reactions to the differences in men and women were very insightful.

Doug called us to be purposeful, personal, passionate, precise, practical and unPredictable.  He asked us to preach like Peter in Acts 2 – being willing to say “you” need to change and not just “we” need to do it.  He implored us to not run from difficult topics like divorce, giving, greed, discipling, attendance and worry.  He called us to 35 minutes or less of preaching to leave the maximum impact, and stressed creativity so that God never becomes boring or monotonous.

Following lunch, most headed downtown to take a Capitol tour.  The three large rooms of statues reminded us of many years of U.S. history.  Pictures were taken and lessons learned from the events that have shaped our country.

For almost 24 hours, Gordon Ferguson from Phoenix had been waiting for his time to speak.  On Tuesday, April 21, it arrived.  Though he may have us on the years of experience side, Gordon also probably won the passion award as he poured out emotion for almost two hours (and would have gladly kept going!).  He talked on “The Structure of a Sermon.”  His heart for preaching was evident in his class, as well as all the others – for any who sat nearby.

The bulk of Gordon’s time was spent on different types of sermons – topical, multi-text and textual.  He walked through how to build a lesson from all of these three types, with the advantages and disadvantages inherent in each.  As only Gordon can, he wove in frank openness, Southern colloquialisms and deep convictions.

On Wednesday morning, Guillermo Adame from San Diego spoke on “Planning for the Future,” a huge need for evangelists as they look ahead.  This morning, as was the case each day, a breakfast area was set up to promote fellowship.

The close-out message was delivered by Shawn Wooten from Kiev, Ukraine, on “The Power of the Parable.”  Shawn pointed to Nathan’s parable with King David and Jesus’ interest in speaking of what the kingdom of heaven was like in Matthew 13.  He then shared a multitude of his own real-life illustrations on a variety of topics – grace, God’s timing, perseverance, salvation and more.  He even capped off the speech with humorous pictures, which can tell a Biblical story too.

While this concluded the powerful workshop for most, several European brothers stayed for their evangelist training program, headed up by Shawn Wooten, the executive director of the International Mission’s Society.  For the next day, these brothers heard a great lesson from Joe Silipo (soon to be serving in Milan, Italy) on “Your Faith,” spent time in discipleship groups and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the training they have received so far.

And almost as quickly as it began, it was completed.  A whirlwind of talks, speeches and songs were over.  But as each participant headed home, there were very specific and practical helps he or she took as well.  Yes, there were building blocks for how to preach.  But even beyond that, there was also a heart of excitement that we get to participate in the greatest calling ever given mankind – sharing with others the good news of Jesus.