Primary Authors & Sources
From classic homiletic method through Puritan Christ-centered preaching to the pastoral college classroom, students read how sermons are made and shepherds are formed. John A. Broadus’s Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons remains the clear American handbook of expository construction and delivery. W. G. T. Shedd’s Homiletics and Pastoral Theology joins pulpit theory to the wider cure of souls. Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students give the pastor-teacher’s voice—call, prayer, earnestness, and the weekly craft of preaching. John Flavel’s Fountain of Life Opened Up models Christ-centered Puritan proclamation that pastoral method must serve, not replace. H. Harvey’s The Pastor: His Qualifications and Duties states the ordinary office—character, oversight, and work—beside the homiletic manuals. Together they serve house-church preaching and care that can bear weight.
What You Will Study
Students study pastoral foundations including homiletics, church governance, worship planning, visitation, counseling basics, and spiritual oversight from Scripture and Reformed pastoral theology. The course covers sermon preparation, sacramental administration, membership care, discipline procedures, and the pastor's personal piety and family life as model for the flock. Readings include pastoral epistles, Baxter's Reformed Pastor, and contemporary Reformed works adapted for house church and small congregation contexts. Students prepare sample sermons, visit reports, and governance proposals reflecting biblical eldership rather than corporate management models. Attention falls on practical ministry skills needed for shepherding gatherings across the Florida Keys with limited resources and high accountability.
Course Objectives
Objectives include preparing expository sermon manuscripts from assigned texts, articulating biblical principles for baptism and Lord's Supper in Reformed practice, drafting church governance documents for elder-led congregations, and demonstrating pastoral sensitivity in case study responses. Students will evaluate worship orders, catechism programs, and discipline processes against confessional standards. The course cultivates integrated pastoral identity combining teacher, intercessor, and overseer roles. Students will develop personal rules of life for prayer, study, and Sabbath rest in ministry. Assessments include preached or recorded sermons, pastoral care reflections, and peer review of governance proposals.
Ministry & Life Application
Pastoral foundations equip called men to serve house churches and congregations with skill, humility, and confessional integrity rather than improvisation or imitation of celebrity ministries. Elders across the Florida Keys gain practical tools for weekly preaching, member care, and orderly worship that honors Christ's headship. This course represents the capstone integration of biblical, theological, and historical studies into embodied ministry. Pastoral leaders leave prepared for the daily labor of feeding sheep, confronting sin, and celebrating sacraments. The church is built up when its shepherds have been trained not merely in theory but in the craft of pastoral work under Word and Spirit.