The Annual Preaching Workshop
2008 Speaker: Dr. Calvin Miller w/Dr. Eugene Enlow
The Marshall Center for Christian Ministry's impact upon pastors has also been felt through its preaching workshop. Offered at minimal cost to participants, and limited to 45 pastors in order to provide a higher quality of instruction and close interaction with leaders, the Marshall Center's preaching workshop has evolved into a highly anticipated, pre-registration-required event.
The first preaching workshop was launched in 1997. In the fall of 2003,
the workshop reached a milestone when the vision of Bill and Alice Marshall
and the legacy of Eugene Enlow and his late wife, Culley, merged to create
the Eugene and Culley Enlow Endowment for Excellence in Preaching. Its
purpose is to support the preaching workshop on an annual basis. It was
established with the assistance of Kentucky Baptist Foundation President
Barry Allen and Trust Counsel Laurie Valentine. Contributions to the
endowment go directly to funding this event.
The MCCM 2010 Preaching Workshop
Monday, September 13, 2010
Georgetown College, East Campus
Thomas & King Conference Center
Workshop Leader: Dr. Raymond Bailey
Sponsored by the Eugene and Culley Enlow Excellence in Preaching Endowment
Meet Dr. Raymond Bailey
"Stimulating and provocative." That's how the Rev. Raymond Bailey described preaching and pastoring even after more than a half- century in the pulpit serving as senior pastor of Seventh and James Baptist Church, Waco, Tx. In May 2010, Rev. Bailey preached his last sermon at the church, located in the heart of the Baylor University campus..
“My goal as a preacher is to ask ‘Did someone meet God today as a result of something in the sermon and what was proclaimed?’” he said. Alluding to the story of Jacob, who wrestled with God in the desert, “Sometimes those who encounter God limp away from the experience.”
During his studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Louisville, KY, where Bailey received both his MDiv and his PhD degrees, he also served as Associate Professor and Director of the Thomas Merton Studies Center at Bellarmine College. After a short pastoral stint in Florida, the Dallas-born preacher/teacher found his way back to the Bluegrass state in 1979. Bailey served as Professor of Christian Preaching and Director of the National Center for Christian Preaching at SBTS from 1979 – 1995. During five of those years, 1990-1995, he also served full-time as pastor of Lyndon Baptist Church in Louisville. In 1995 Bailey journeyed back to his home state and former ‘college town’ to become the Senior Pastor of Seventh & James Baptist Church in Waco, TX.
Bailey’s 1995 call to the helm of Seventh & James was a Baylor-centric homecoming of sorts. At age 18, as a student at Baylor in the late 1950s, he was pastor to a small congregation in the town of Ben Arnold (about 60 miles southeast of Waco in Milam County.)
“I wouldn’t advise it nowadays, calling a student as preacher,” he said. “I saw some of the sermons I delivered then: I took ’em out and burned ’em. What I inflicted on the poor people of Ben Arnold was unforgivable.”
Originally, he’d set out to become a lawyer. But the summer before his senior year of high school, he experienced “the call” from God and went to Baylor, graduating in 1959. He headed to seminary, but was not happy with the education he was receiving there, he said.
Following the example of one of his favorite Baylor professors, the late dramatist Paul Baker (1911-2009), Bailey went into acting. He also taught at the high school and college level. As a result of his early thespian interest, he continues to share a passion for the arts, saying, "Some of our best thinking (as a society) is found in our literature, arts and music. I have drawn heavily from literature for my sermon illustrations."
In retirement his plans are many and include teaching and writing and becoming "a good grandfather" to three granddaughters and two grandsons while enjoying life with wife Patricia.
Previous Workshop Leaders
- 1998 — Dr. Thomas G. Long
- 1999 — Dr. John Killinger
- 2001 — Dr. John Claypool
- 2003 — Dr. Joel Gregory
- 2004 — Dr. Cleophus LaRue
- 2006 — Dr. Ron Higdon
- 2007 — Dr. Robert Smith
- 2008 — Dr. Calvin Miller
- 2009 — Dr. Charles Bugg