The Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence (PCPE) at SMU announces a leadership change, effective Sept. 1, naming Alyce McKenzie and Wes Allen as Co-Directors of the Center.
The change reflects a division of labor for two key initiatives going forward: a new continuing education Certificate in Preaching Excellence (CPX) program, which McKenzie will primarily lead, and the Preacher’s Toolbox for non-seminary trained preachers, which Allen will run.
McKenzie, who founded the PCPE in 2013 and has served as its Director until now, says the shared leadership arrangement is in the PCPE’s best interest.
“Wes has been a consultant for the Center for the past several years and a popular workshop leader in our programs for clergy,” she said. “His ability to analyze the big picture context of both church and academy, seeing the forest, not just the trees, will help the Center to focus on excellence in its key initiatives.”
Allen adds that he looks forward to his more formal role in the PCPE.
“Alyce has not only directed the center, but she founded it and got the funding for it,” he said. “I’m excited be joining her good work.”
Certificate of Preaching Excellence (CPX)
The new CPX program will be spearheaded primarily by McKenzie, who is Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship at Perkins, as well as Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor.
The CPX will offer a continuing education option for clergypersons with M.Div. degrees. To earn the CPX, they will attend four half day virtual courses, followed by three, one-on-one coaching sessions. Four online courses will be offered each year, but CPX students may elect to take longer than a year to complete the four courses, depending on their schedules. Registration is now open.
“I think there’ll be a lot of energy around this,” said McKenzie. “It’s a good model.”
The program will kick off in January 2025, with a course in experiential preaching taught by Allen, on ““how to shape sermons, not just so they enter your head, but also enter the heart and create emotional experiences so that people experience the Gospel,” Allen said.
In April 2025, McKenzie will teach the next half-day course, entitled Novel Preaching, which is also the title of a book she wrote, exploring how preachers can learn from creative writers.
In the fall of 2025, Dr. Thomas G. Long will teach the next course, based on his newly published book, Proclaiming the Parables: Preaching and Teaching the Kingdom of God. “Many people think of the parables as simple sermon illustrations, that boil down to nice morals of the story, and he’s going to disabuse us of that,” McKenzie said.
The final course in 2025, on preaching and trauma, will be led by Rev. Dr. Joni Sancken, Butler Chair of Homiletics and Biblical Hermeneutics at Vancouver School of Theology in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Preacher’s Toolbox
Allen, who is the Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins. will focus his efforts on the Preacher’s Toolbox. The one-day workshops focus primarily on how to write and deliver sermons.
“This is a ‘crash course’ for people who licensed pastors, many of whom are bi-vocational and still preach week after week after week,” Allen said. “They’re doing this part-time or full-time but haven’t had a chance to go to seminary. The goal is to give them some tools in preaching. And then we’re going to follow up the one-day workshops with online workshops that help them go a little deeper and work on other topics.”
Allen added that the Preacher’s Toolbox is a passion project for him.
“I started off as a student local pastor and had no skills at all when I started,” he said. “I really feel for these people, because the church hasn’t developed many tools to help them.”
Continuing Programs
In addition to the CPX and Preacher’s Toolbox, McKenzie and Allen plan to continue several other initiatives.
When it launched in 2013, the PCPE began with in-person peer groups. “We’ve probably had at least 60-70 groups over the years, each with 12 clergy participating,” said McKenzie.
With COVID, the PCPE shifted its focus to its online offerings, including an online lectionary blog by retired Perkins faculty member John Holbert, called Lively Lectionary, and a series of interviews with authors of recent books in preaching called Must Reads.
In addition, the PCPE has sponsored a series of books and workshops, the Preaching and…project. Preaching and pairs an expert in the field of preaching (a homiletician) with a scholar from another field in a collaborative workshop held each April at Perkins School of Theology and a preaching textbook, published by Westminster John Knox Press.
“We’ve got two more coming out in the series,” said Allen. “One on preaching and filmmaking, and another on preaching and conflict resolution (transformation.)”
PCPE programs are open for preachers in any denomination. Allen and McKenzie emphasize that the PCPE offerings are not remedial; they’re designed to help good preachers become better preachers. In addition, the PCPE gives preachers access to a wealth of expertise and academic experience. Allen and McKenzie are both past presidents of the Academy of Homiletics, the professional guild of professors of homiletics in North America, with a growing international component.
“Our mission remains the same as it did at the beginning, which is to enhance transformative preaching in local congregations, in both traditional and alternative contexts,” Allen said. “We know how hard and draining it can be to preach every week, week after week, 50 times a year. We try to give preachers a chance to reflect on and improve their craft, because it takes a lot of work.”