By Abigail Gan | Staff Writer
Professor of preaching Dr. Jared E. Alcántara has been named director of the Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching, which prepares students at Truett Theological Seminary and offers continuing education for other pastors and ministers. In this role, Alcántara will help put to use a $1.25 million grant Baylor received to assist with the Compelling Preaching Initiative.
According to a Baylor news release, the initiative “aims to foster and support preaching that inspires, encourages, and guides people to come to know and love God and to live out their Christian faith more fully.”
“Receiving the grant allows us to continue that work and grow that work,” Alcántara said. “Also, for me, as a [Latino] person living in Texas — who has commitments with Latina churches, who preaches in English and in Spanish and who does different workshops and connects with Latino pastors and leaders — it’s a new opportunity for me to start something new with preaching and churches in those communities, and different conferences or different trainings that we could pursue.”
Alcántara succeeds professor of preaching Dr. Joel Gregory, who has already taken some steps with the Compelling Preaching Initiative. Alcántara said Gregory, who has ties with Black churches, launched an African American Preaching Conference, which has been successful and continues to grow.
Part of Alcántara’s draw to Baylor was the university’s focus on preaching. In 2018, the year of his arrival, Baylor approved a Ph.D. in preaching.
“[The preaching program] felt like a great fit, a sense of call that I had to not only invest in the next generation of preachers … but also the Ph.D. students — many of whom are already pastors, many of whom want to go and teach preaching somewhere either part-time or full-time,” Alcántara said.
Alcántara said his ethnic identity has influenced his work and teaching.
“A big part of what I’ve done in my academic work, and then as I continue in my teaching, is to bring marginalized voices closer to the center,” Alcántara said. “The grant is called ‘centering minoritized preaching for the sake of the church’ — not just so that minoritized communities receive some wonderful resources and opportunities and training, but also so that all pastors, preachers, leaders are able to have their ears tuned to what we can learn from minoritized preaching traditions.”
Alcántara said it’s exciting to be collaborative within the religion department at Baylor.
“You have minoritized faculty members who are doing special projects, and then with the ministry guidance program, trying to find all of the really neat synergy between that program and our seminary,” Alcantara said. “What I want to see happen is more people of color who are preaching here on our campus — at the seminary, at the undergrad side — more people of color who are mentors to all students, not just students who are people of color — and more opportunities for there to be continual focus on growth.”
Professor of religion and director of ministry guidance Dr. Dennis Horton is one of six co-principal investigators for the grant project. Horton said there has been a strong demand among students regarding preaching, and the communication ministry course, which includes preaching, always has a long waitlist.
“Part of it is just the subject itself — that our ministry students know that they need to be able to deliver meaningful messages and in a way that will be communicated clearly and will reflect the message from the Bible,” Horton said.
Horton said the group has been brainstorming how to benefit students and create more collaboration between undergraduates and the seminary, such as through a preaching lab.
“It would be great for [undergraduates] to have a lab where they could have these Ph.D. students who are guiding them,” Horton said. “Our department partnering together for the benefit of the students and potentially having other courses … rather than putting everything in one communication class, actually separating out to have more of a preaching course.”
Horton said there are around 1,000 students who have indicated interest in pursuing ministry in some aspect. Only about a quarter of them are actually on ministry scholarships or connected with religion at Baylor.
“I would encourage [students to] just go ahead and take another religion class or two,” Horton said. “We would love to have them in that intro to ministry class, because that’s a great class just to explore calling. … That gives them an opportunity to work as an intern in a church or Christian nonprofit, and they can really get a sense of, ‘Is this something that God is really calling me to, and what kind of ministry is that?’ That would be my invitation.”
