Claudio Carvalhues, Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, has been tapped to plan the three worship services for the first Festival of Young Preachers to be held in Louisville, January 7-9, 2010. “This is an exciting initiative,” Dr. Carvalhues said, “and I am thrilled to be a part of it.”
The first worship service will be Thursday evening, January 7, with the Mid-Kentucky Chorus of St. Catherine College and Rev. Kyle Idleman, of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville. The following night, Friday January 8, the keynote preacher is Dr. Brad Braxton of Chicago. At noon on Saturday, the Cathedral Choir from the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville will join with Dr. Stephanie Paulsell, Professor of Ministry at Harvard Divinity School, to lead the service.
All of these services are free and open to the public, but offerings will be taken to provide scholarships to the preaching camps in May and June of 2010. In fact, all of the preaching sessions during the festival, especially those featuring the young preachers, are open to the public. The Christian community of Louisville is urged to attend the Festival to signal their support for a new generation of gospel preachers.
Assisting Dr. Carvalhaes in planning the worship are four students at the Presbyterian seminary, all of whom have registered to preach at the festival. Adam Kilcherman is a third-year student, on the ministry staff of Middletown Christian Church, and a member of the Young Preachers Leadership Team of the Academy. Aaron Flucke and Garrett Schindler are two of the four young preachers registered for the festival who are members of Community Presbyterian Church in Charlestown, Indiana. Christine Fohr is from First Presbyterian Church in Owensboro, Kentucky and is the current president of the student body at the seminary.
The Festival of Young Preachers is a fresh initiative of the Academy of Preachers, which is largely funded by the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis. The Academy is designed to identify, network, support, and inspire young adults (ages 16-28) from all Christian traditions who aspire to vocations as Christian preachers.