The purpose of the church is to enable preachers to think more deeply about their process of message development and break through to more compelling modes of preaching through having a wider range of exegetical and related rhetorical options. Topics include: * Biblical and Theological issues undergirding a theology of preaching practices. * A survey of recent shifts in Western homiletic practice: the inductive move toward the audience and democretising of the process: From Craddock to McClure and beyond. * The ethics of preaching and preaching ethics. * Diagnostics of audience features: spirituality, spiritual state and the prophet-pastoral options. * Respecting genre and form. * Rhetorical strategies for preaching. * Narrative approaches to communication. * The spirituality for a lifetime vocation * Diagnosis for a calendric approach. * Raising up the next generation and inducting others into preaching.