Resources & Research
Online Resource Hub & Community
This online hub will be launched in 2024 and serve as a hub for preaching resources, including interviews with exemplary preachers; access to creative preaching videos and the latest research around listeners, proclamation, and our own ongoing research on how young people listen to sermons. It will also attempt to cultivate an online community to share resources, provide feedback and generate new ideas around preaching.
If you would like to be notified when the hub launches, please fill out the interest form below and indicate your interest in “preaching resources” at the bottom.
Research With Young Adults
The Compelling Preaching Initiative will undertake a research study, led by Associate Professor of Communication Studies Joy York, to examine the preferences of college-aged adults as listeners. The results of the study will be shared with the Office of Church Engagement’s network of ministry leaders and used to inform the initiative’s ongoing work with preachers.
Situated on a campus with an increasing diversity of students, the OCE is acutely aware of the wide range of attitudes toward faith and the church that are held by young adults. Despite research that shows young people leaving the church, there are significant opportunities available to call young adults into deeper community in the body of Christ, including through new models of preaching. Research from groups like Springtide shows that young people are looking for simple connection, small and authentic communities, and faith-filled people with integrity. We want to help preachers attend to these longings.
The research will utilize our campus as well as those of campus ministries across the country as a laboratory for research and experimentation with styles of preaching aimed at young adults. We believe that by paying attention to the prophetic insights of young people and attending to their longings, preachers in all settings will be strengthened to proclaim the gospel in ways that steward the whole Church, young and old, traditional and non-traditional, toward new experiences of God.
This research will take place throughout 2024, and our team is excited to share what we learn with you. If you are a campus ministry leader and would like to be involved, please reach out to Project Director Mindy Smith at mindysmith@whitworth.edu.