Day of Preaching 2026: April 18, 2026 at Belmont University
We invite young preachers from the ages of 16-28 to Belmont University for a Day of Preaching on April 18, 2026! No experience required! This is your chance to preach in a supportive and encouraging environment with other young preachers. Join us for a great day of preaching!
The Academy of Preachers was founded in 2009 to identify, network, inspire, and support young people in their gospel preaching. Over ten years about a thousand young preachers gathered up their Bibles and preached their first sermons with others their age. Initially funded through a generous grant by the Lilly Endowment, the Academy of Preachers came to Belmont University in late 2019. COVID-19 challenged some of the transition efforts and leadership changes brought a pause to the work of the Academy of Preachers.
Our Day of Preaching on April 18, 2026 marks a rebooting of the Academy of Preachers. We are excited for the future and the opportunities it will provide young preachers.
Now funded by the Moench Center for Church Leadership at Belmont University, our Day of Preaching will include keynote speakers, breakout workshops, a panel discussion, and young preachers preaching and encouraging each other.
A small fee of $75 is required for registration by April 11 to cover morning snacks, a box lunch, and incidental expenses for the day. Registration will increase to $100 per person on April 12, 2026. Register today!
Please join us for our Day of Preaching!
Recent News
This can work in your denomination!
Follow this link to learn what happens when a denominational conference opens up to the excitement of Young Preachers:
http://storify.com/UMNS/young-people-inspire-at-the-festival-of-young-prea
A Church for Generation Y & Z
25 year old Xavier sits at his job all day, bored. He watches his dreams go by in a job that does not fulfill his longing for something with meaning. Sure he makes a decent amount of money, lives in a well-to-do neighborhood, and drives a nice car, but Xavier is empty. One day Xavier decides to leave, to follow his dreams, to take a pay cut. He doesn’t know where he is going or how he is going to make money but he does know that he is now on the right track…
Getting Rid of the Fitting Rooms
David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. “I can’t go in these,” he protested to Saul. “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off again.
(1st Samuel 17:39, NLT)
A few months ago as I rode the MARTA to the National Festival of Young Preachers a friend and I talked about the changing demographics of the church. She shared how her pastors back home, once a month, hold church services Sunday evenings in a coffee shop where they feed a younger, “unchurched” crowd hungry to learn more about Jesus. A year earlier, I heard stories about churches who similarly took their ministry outside of Sunday worship and the four walls of the church. One in Philadelphia, PA set up shop outside of a popular nightclub and served hungry club patrons with free pizza printing bible verses and service times on their napkins. Another ministry in Atlanta, GA decided that “conventional” worship services were not enough anymore. They forwent normal worship and used Sundays as prayer time and agenda setting for a week full of localized service, community organizing and neighborhood restoration.
As I sat on the smooth, sight-filled ride to the heart of Atlanta getting ready to preach a sermon I asked myself, “What will preaching look, feel, sound and taste like for this new generation?” How does one preach in a coffee shop? How does one proclaim the gospel on a pizza truck to club goers at three a.m.? As we preach in our churches, how do we reach and hold in balance congregations filled with those who grew up in Sunday school their entire lives and crave something new, with those who do not know the story of Easter? How do we preach to a new generation?
Mission Impossible-Preaching to Diversity
Several times throughout the book of Revelation, we encounter the phrase “whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit is saying to the churches”. Since accepting a full time ministry position with a four year old congregation I have found myself saying the same thing and wondering how to authentically preach a gospel that transcends time to a multi-generational church with varying degrees of understanding theological principles.
Gather At The River
(One of the four eulogies delivered at the funeral service for George Thomas Moody, this one by Dwight A. Moody) We began this service of worship with the invitation to “gather at the river.” That hymn is inspired by the very last chapter of the Bible. From the throne...
Eager, Entrepreneurial Bereans
BY AARON CARR, AoP ’12, MDIV STUDENT, CANDLER SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Acts 17:11 NIV
I have to confess that I am deeply uncomfortable with the word “entrepreneur.” A few negative run-ins with business majors while in college – coupled with a deep sympathy for the Marxist critique of the whole Capitalist enterprise – has apparently resulted in rather ambiguous feelings about those business people who call themselves entrepreneurs.
So when I was asked us to write about “being an entrepreneur in ministry,” I didn’t know how to respond. It was obvious from the initial prompt that we were supposed to focus more on the pluck, determination, and imagination of an entrepreneur than on his or her specific role as a business person with an idea to pitch and a bottom line to meet. But it is difficult for me to divorce the charismatic connection-maker from the [business person].
Still, I was determined to stick to the theme, and to be only mildly critical of it, so I began looking for alternative kinds of entrepreneurs, people who weren’t interested in large profit margins but were still plucky, determined, and imaginative. The solution to my dilemma, it turns out, had been right under my nose the entire time.
In October, I recently began attending Berea Mennonite Church, a small Anabaptist congregation near the heart of East Atlanta. If the word “pluck” has ever been properly used in the history of the English language, it is when referring to this congregation. Over the past two decades – with plenty of entrepreneurial spirit – Berea has cobbled together a 9-acre farm, a significant piece of land that allows the congregation to live into an alternative economy.