LANGHAM PREACHING
Apple/Android. Free
A key part of John Stott’s vision in founding Langham Partnership (LP) was ‘equipping local pastors to teach the Bible’ – and this app is a tool designed for that end.
The Langham Preaching app is intended: to help preachers prepare sermons; to help local preaching training groups (or Preaching Clubs in LP terminology) share their sermon outlines; to allow preachers around the world to connect.
After creating a free account, a simple menu highlights key features, including Sermons. Here users create a file for each sermon they are preparing. Upon entering the Bible passage, four preparation steps are shown: Passage Study; Passage Structure; Sermon Application; Sermon Structure. As users work through each of these stages, there is a simple grid/form to follow.
For example, in Passage Study, users are encouraged to note down literature type, author, audience, etc. In Passage Structure, users make notes on the verses and identify the passage’s ‘heartbeat’. Sermon Application encourages consideration of the congregation, its challenges, relevant illustrations, before Sermon Structure allows a framework to be crafted.
An ‘Outline’ button automatically then selects some of the information entered in those four stages and presents it altogether, giving a helpful and simple overview of the sermon so far. This can then be easily shared with the user’s Preaching Club, and a Chat feature allows interaction with the Club.
The LP model involves week-long annual preaching seminars alongside community-based local Preaching Clubs. It’s clearly within this model that the app is designed to excel, rather than as a stand-alone input.
However, the app is certainly of benefit to UK-based preachers. Forcing oneself to work through these stages develops and sustains a healthy preparation pattern. But it also invites preachers to be collaborative as they share progress: the Chat and Club features could easily be utilised by a church’s preaching team or a cohort of ministry apprentices on a regional training course.
