Capstone
Project 

          The role of the pastor every week is to write and to communicate a sermon to a church he leads. Many pastors across the United States have had many opportunities to creatively write sermons every week based upon their personality. When a pastor (or elder/teacher) gives a sermon, there are different factors involved that can be slightly different than most versions of public speaking. When writing and giving a sermon, the pastor is supposed to provide context for the meaning behind the piece of scripture the pastor is preaching on, interpret the meaning of the piece of scripture and to find ways to apply the lessons learned in the passage for the members of the congregation. While there are many different components involved in a pastor’s responsibility, sermon writing is a significant responsibility that is crucial for the health of a church.

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Throughout the spring semester of 2025, I have had the opportunity to learn about the different approaches to writing sermons. The method in which I learned how to sermon write was through a pastoral residency I participated in. This residency taught me many valuable lessons about the overall responsibilities of a pastor, the difficulties involved in opposition to the responsibilities, the practice of sermon writing and then giving the sermon. The main area of focus related to this paper has to do with the purpose of writing and publicly communicating a sermon that I have written myself out of my own creative personality.

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KJ Pugh, pastor of Alberta Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, is the man who has taught me many of these lessons weekly. His expertise from his many years in ministry has bestowed much wisdom on me on topics such as theology, ministry leadership and sermon writing. His care and attention to detail on what the Bible teaches, what other theological books have to teach and challenges involved in sermon writing has given me many reasons to build my confidence altogether.

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There were many classes throughout my time here at the University of Alabama that have shaped and molded me to grow in how to communicate with others. The course that has had the greatest impact on me was COM 225. The name of this course was Small Group Communication. Practically, this taught me many lessons on how to express myself through understanding the different principles of small group communication and how to apply them. The principles that have had the greatest impact on me were Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk on “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” and the challenges of groupthink. These two principles as well as the practice of speaking publicly have been implemented in my daily walk in learning about ministry. This course has impacted me greatly as I plan for a future in ministry.