Even while the inaugural Festival of Young Preachers is yet 56 days away, we are working hard to plan the second festival. It is scheduled for January 6-8, 2011 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Four organizations have expressed interest in hosting the second festival and Academy representatives are meeting with officials of each of these sites to select those that will best accommodate the festival. Louisville remains the home site of the Academy of Preachers and the festival because it is centrally located in the nation, because hotel and airline costs are very reasonable, and because Louisville is where the Academy has the largest concentration of support.
Invitations have gone out to several people inviting them to be keynote preachers. The only commitment we have to date is Dr. Robert Smith, pastor of the Allen Memorial United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and professor of preaching at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University.
Registration for the 2011 festival will open on January 1, 2010, a week before the first festival. Young Preachers will be able to register for the second festival at the first festival at St. Matthews Baptist Church. Those young preachers who are on the waiting list for this first festival and who do not get a chance to preach will automatically be registered for the following year.
Who will be the first to register for 2011?? Warning: Caela Wood was the first to register for the 2010 festival but she got pregnant and will be unable to preach in January!! But the good news is that one hundred other young preachers registered after her and several more are working on their materials right now….to be on the waiting list, no less!! Amazing!!