Small Christian Colleges in rural Indiana have big goals for their latest initiatives. This is a program designed to be a “flight simulator” that the pastor wants to hone his skills behind the pulpit.
“When you think of pilots who are trained to cra in the cockpit of planes, they’re going to enter a digital flight simulator,” said Dr. Timothy McConnell, pastor of Colorado Springs’ first Presbyterian church, in a recent episode of CBN News’ “Quick Start” podcast. “We climbed the pulpit with cameras, monitors of confidence, lights and sound systems, and climbed the pulpit with insight and everything we need to recognize as stepping into the pulpit of our era, creating a kind of pulpit simulator.
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Program Director McConnell was describing Preach Labs held this month in Upland, Indiana, by Taylor University, one of the nation’s oldest Christian universities. The program’s name is the acronym for “preparation, resources, equipment, coaching for outstanding excellence.”
Ultimately, such an initiative seems to have several benefits.
Research shows that many pastors and ministries leaders feel they are not equipped to address issues that are appropriate and persuasive to the issue of pulpits, especially when the topics center around issues of politics and civic engagement are at the heart. In 2023, the Barna Group released data showing only one in five pastors who felt they were equipped with congregation-leading equipment on those subjects, particularly those subjects.
Data released by Lifeway Research in 2021 showed that over half of pastors (54%) were frequently overwhelmed by ministries, with 48% feeling that they felt demanded before them. But even with these statistics, few evangelical ministers left their pulpit.
There are many pastors, McConnell said in his sermon, “it’s surprising.” Because it can benefit from resources like the sermon lab because it was carried over without actual training, especially in unpopular areas.
The Colorado-based pastor introduced President Abraham Lincoln, praised him, saying, “I’ll give him six hours to cut down the trees and spend the first four hours polishing the x.” The 16th President emphasized the importance of proper preparation for tasks at hand.
“There are a lot of pastors out there. God bless them. It didn’t land as I wanted. I wish I had stepped back and sharpened the x a bit, and had the time and space to go back to it,” McConnell said.
The apostle Paul encouraged the followers to prioritize effectively communicating the gospel.
He can place premiums on the practical nature of clearly and efficiently sharing the gospel through sermons, and ask Ephesus to ask him to give him the “right word” to pray to God, so he can boldly explain God’s mystical plan that “good news for the Jews and Gentiles is the same” (Ephesians 6:19, NLT).
“If you’re talking to thousands of people, you need to learn how to do that differently,” McConnell said. “And you don’t want to be a distraction – you don’t want to be a gospel block.”
He continued. “We have always been engaged in advance in technology because of the motivation to share the gospel widely. What can we use? Can we jump to the radio? Can we jump to TV like CBN? (w) Can we jump to hat platforms? And if the pastor is called to use these platforms, I want them to be equipped to use them well.”
You can listen to the entire conversation on the podcast below.
