Learner-Centered Pedagogy and Preaching: A Postmodern Framework for Transformation of Preacher and Listener

Abstract

This essay will contribute to the ongoing conversation related to postmodern homiletics by engaging with the elements of learner-centered teaching. Recognizing that modernist methods have diminished effectiveness for the postmodern hearer, learner-centered preaching holds potential value by realigning preaching with the cultural shift in theological beliefs about authority, power, and community. Learner-centered teaching, represented by Maryellen Weimer, is a pedagogical approach rooted in democratic and egalitarian values that focuses on these changes in the classroom: the role of the teacher, the balance of power, the function of content, the responsibility for learning, and the method of evaluation. This essay will present the advent of learner-centered teaching and outline its elements. Next, the relationship between teaching and preaching will be examined. Then, an exploration of the context of learner-centered preaching. After that, each learner-centered teaching element will be considered focusing on how they have been utilized in preaching and offering proposals of how they could be integrated. Finally, conclusions will be drawn about the power of learner-centered preaching for the transformation of speaker and hearer. The end goal of learner-centered preaching is a change in Christian practice; therefore, more than just discussing the theory of learner-centered preaching, this essay will provide praxis for immediate implementation.

1. Introduction

For postmodern listeners, the question arises whether preaching continues to have a role in a time where the implicit authority of the pulpit is viewed as a reason not to listen more than a reason to listen. Evaluating the role of authority, power, and community in relation to homiletics carries great importance in our postmodern age, and it is with this in mind that this essay examines the potential usefulness of the pedagogical stance of learner-centered teaching and will apply the principles and framework of learner-centered teaching to homiletics. Using these principles offers increased connection to postmodern listeners and provides a greater opportunity for listener learning and transformation. Homileticians already use many pedagogical principles (Clark 2024; Sigmon 2023). This essay will call the readers to consider a full practice of all five components of learner-centered teaching in preaching.

To sound this call, this paper will present the development of learner-centered teaching and outline its elements. Next, the relationship between pedagogy and preaching will be examined, followed by an exploration of the context of learner-centered preaching. After that, each learner-centered teaching element will be considered focusing on how they have been used in preaching and offering proposals of how they could be integrated. Special attention will be given to the final two elements, which have been the least explored within homiletics. Finally, conclusions will be drawn about the power of learner-centered preaching for the transformation of speaker and hearer.

2. Defining Learner-Centered Teaching

Learner-centered teaching is a term chosen by Maryellen Weimer to describe the shift in focus and practice that she made in her teaching. Weimer reflected on her “instructional image” and found that she was self-focused, domineering, and more interested in revealing her own knowledge and skills than forming them in her students (Weimer 2013, p. 7). Weimer realized the weakness of her assumption that students would simply learn because she was devoted to excellent teaching, and instead began to develop a strategy for teaching that focused on giving students the skills and confidence to learn.1 To this end, learner-centered teaching prioritizes what and how the student is learning, as opposed to the traditional teacher-centered method, which emphasizes the knowledge of the teacher and the material they are covering.

Many theories and pedagogies contribute to the central ideas of learner-centered teaching. One of these is “radical” or “critical” pedagogy, which believes that learning is an instrument for social change.2 Another is feminist pedagogy, which critiques the balance of power in the classrooms, noting that the power structures of teaching often protect and prioritize the powerful.3 Finally, the theory of constructivism undergirds a significant part of the methodology of learner-centered teaching with its determination that knowledge is unable to be given out by teachers, but instead must be constructed by the students.4 These supporting theories are clearly seen in the ways learner-centered teaching questions power, authority, the function of content, and the role of students in the classroom. The democratic and egalitarian views of these pedagogies serve as the mostly invisible bedrock perspective on which learner-centered teaching is built.5

From these external pedagogical perspectives, Weimer outlines five theories that serve as the values for the practice of learner-centered teaching.

• Teaching that engages students in the hard, messy work of learning.
• Teaching that motivates and empowers students by giving them some control over learning processes.
• Teaching that encourages collaboration, acknowledging the classroom, be it virtual or real, as a community where everyone shares the learning agenda.
• Teaching that includes explicit learning ++.
• Teaching that promotes students’ reflection about what they are learning and how they are learning it.6

Weimer uses these theories to form an approach that seeks to improve and increase the learning of students.7

Five aspects of learner-centered teaching are drawn by Weimer from these theories. (1) It changes the role of the teacher. (2) It changes the balance of power. (3) It changes the function of content. (4) It makes students responsible for learning. (5) It revisits the purposes and processes of evaluation.8 Retention and transformation have been proven by research to be brought about by these aspects.9

Since retention and transformation are also significant goals of the preaching event, this essay argues that there is potential usefulness for learner-centered teaching in homiletics. To determine this, the influence of pedagogy on preaching must be examined before then considering what aspects of learner-centered teaching might be transferable between them.

3. Pedagogy and Preaching

Preaching, even when focused on proclamation, evangelism, or prophetic pronouncement, always involves teaching. It involves educating the listeners on scripture, theology, and the practical ways scripture and theology affect the listeners’ lives. Teaching is a necessary part of preaching, and therefore the best practices and proven strategies that make teaching more effective can and should be applied to preaching to make it more effective. When tested pedagogical strategies are adopted in sermons, they create the same learning potential for the church that they create for classrooms. With this in mind, pedagogical practices should be translated into homiletics to be made useful for preaching. This translation involves finding the closest points of contact between pedagogical theory and practice and the preparation and delivery of a sermon. This essay does the work of translation between Weimer’s presentation of learner-centered teaching and homiletics.

Pedagogy is “the study of teaching methods, including the aims of education and the ways in which such goals may be achieved.” (Peel 2024). Those who teach, including preachers, have a pedagogical stance and resulting method even if they are unable to articulate it. Articulating one’s position on the aims and method of teaching is an essential step in being an effective teacher whose lessons accomplish their intended goals.

This paper proposes Maryellen Weimer’s learner-centered theory as a useful pedagogical position for preachers because Weimer’s desired outcomes align with preaching goals. Weimer desires to help students be transformed through “reflection, critique and the development of self-awareness.”10 More than this, she advocates for the power of learner-centered teaching to transform the teacher.11 This transformation of learner and teacher align with the desires of the Christian community where the proclamation of the good news transforms both proclaimer and listener.

4. Context of Learner-Centered Preaching

Learner-centered preaching does not come from thin air. The core commitments of learner-centered preaching come from an established homiletic trajectory of focusing on the listeners. Scholars have long recognized this need for a shift in the orientation of preaching from preacher to listener. This trajectory is seen in the dawn of the New Homiletic, which offers a corrective to the monological preaching pattern, and instead initiates a pattern of preaching in which the listeners feel themselves to be represented (Gibson 2005; McClure 1995). A “turn to the listener” began in the nineteen-sixties and continued to be seen in Fred Craddock’s inductive method and those that followed in his path (Allen and Mulligan 2009). Especially relevant to the trajectory of this essay is the work of John McClure’s “Roundtable Preaching”, whose insights will be considered when focusing on their connection to the elements of learner-centered teaching. Each of these movements reveal the desire to engage with postmodern hearers.12

Falling in line with this direction, learner-centered preaching has power for the postmodern listener. Ronald Allen’s outline of postmodern thought provides a useful sketch of a postmodern listener. These listeners struggle to hear messages and speakers who communicate certainty, universality, and authority (Allen 2009, p. 15). They reject the model of increased specialized knowledge found in modernity, and instead see all people as capable of knowledge rooted in their social locations.13 They value difference and diversity, desiring a message and speaker that acknowledges social location and privilege (Allen 2017). They see community as more significant than individuals.14 Learner-centered preaching aligns with these perspectives of authority, power, and community and attends to the needs of the postmodern hearer.

To engage in such radical work as divesting power, becoming vulnerable to listeners, and opening up to community, a practitioner of this method must first be convinced of the essential nature and resulting benefits of the change. Before turning to the five elements of learner-centered preaching, the value of adopting learner-centered preaching will be examined. The following section seeks to make plain and compelling the reasons to adopt a learner-centered preaching practice.

5. Learner-Centered Preaching

Extensive research has been performed revealing the value of learner-centered teaching for students.15 Of this research, what is most significant for preaching is the research on deep learning, which reveals that learner-centered teaching methods are seen to bring about deep learning rather than surface learning.16 Deep learning is marked by learning in which the learner makes connections between new material and what they already know. Students experiencing deep learning think critically about the content, value the material and the learning process, and are motivated to comprehensively understand what is being taught.17 From this, researchers concluded that deep learning creates the potential for transformation by changing the way the world and the self are understood.18

This deep learning, though not called that explicitly, is felt by students in a learner-centered classroom. In one study, students revealed that they noticed the difference in the learner-centered classroom’s attitudes and functions and responded favorably to them, citing them as significant for their success in the course (Wohlfarth et al. 2008, pp. 70–72).

Since learner-centered teaching is so different from the traditional teacher-centered classroom, it may seem daunting to try and apply these principles. Reassuringly, research reveals that it is not primarily the success of the implementation that creates the learners’ success, but it is chiefly the intention of the teacher that has power. The attitude with which a teacher approaches teaching has direct and measurable effects on the attitudes of the students in the classroom. Teachers who use a learner-centered approach, which focuses on helping students change their worldviews and think differently about the material they are studying, form students who are less likely to adopt a surface learning approach (Trigwell et al. 1999, p. 67). This means that the teacher, or in our case preacher, has great power to help develop a congregation who view the material taught as important and who make connections between the new material and what they already know.

In light of this research, learner-centered teaching principles when applied to preaching could create these potential outcomes:

• Listeners will make connections between the message and their life.
• Listeners will think critically about the text and ideas presented in the sermon.
• Listeners will gain value for and a sense of investment in what is being preached.
• Listeners will be self-motivated to comprehensively understand the message.
• Listeners will see themselves as active and essential to the preaching experience.
• Listeners will be transformed in the way they understand God, the world, and the self.

In the pursuit of the transformation and discipleship of their listeners, preachers tirelessly prepare sermons hoping to create new connections in their listeners’ minds, inspire the retention of biblical concepts, and form engaged listeners who apply the ideas presented each week. Learner-centered teaching offers a pathway to accomplish those desires. To tread this path, the rest of this paper will be focused on the five elements of learner-centered teaching, asking how they already have been and additionally can be applied to preaching. The first three elements, the role of the teacher, the balance of power, and the function of content, are easily seen in classic preaching texts. The final two, the student’s responsibility for learning, and the process of evaluation, have been less effectively considered in the current practice of preaching. This paper will offer suggestions to intentionally integrate these elements into preaching.

5.1. The Role of the Teacher

The role of the teacher is the first aspect that changes with learner-centered teaching. Weimer critiques the traditional teacher-focused classroom because in her assessment, the teacher does most of the active work and the students are passive observers.19 In this dynamic, the teacher is the source of power and information in the class and most of the features of the class revolve around the teacher’s comfort and needs. Changing the role of the teacher is the essential foundation on which all of the other elements are laid.

As a solution to the less fruitful teacher-focused structure in the classroom, Weimer believes that the teacher’s role should be that of a facilitator, in which facilitators “engage and support students in the hard and messy work of learning.”20 The role of a facilitator is often spoken of in other pedagogical considerations as one of many roles or an optional role for teachers. In learner-centered teaching, facilitating is less an option and more a requirement.21

Weimer relies on a few images to explain the role of a facilitator. One image is of a gardener, described by Dennis Fox, who says that gardeners rightly receive credit for the way they enable flowers to bloom and fruit, but they are not the plants who bloom or produce fruit.22 Another image is of a guide. Facilitating teachers might walk a path, pointing out features, offering insights, and giving warnings. They are the ones who know how to achieve the heights of the trail and assist the students in arriving at the peak.23 She also points to the image of a teacher as midwife by William Ayers.24 Like midwives, they are not carrying out the birthing, but instead are there to empower and encourage. They provide expertise, confidence, and the certainty of having carried this out many times.

After a teacher’s self-conception has changed to one of a gardener, guide, and midwife, practices which would make this posture fruitful may be sought. Weimer offers four principles to guide the implementation of facilitative teaching: teachers let students do more learning tasks; teachers do less telling so that students can do more discovering; teachers do instructional design work more carefully; teachers more explicitly model how experts learn. These elements create a teacher who is focused on the learning needs of the students instead of the ego of the teacher.

Preaching could also benefit from a change of role. Using similar images to Weimer, Tom Long cites James A. Wallace, who relates that preaching is feeding the people of God.25 The preacher is not the food nor the hungry, but the facilitator of connecting the two. Long also quotes Theresa Rickard’s dissertation comparing the preacher to a midwife of the word. Rickard points out that the midwife is not the creator of the baby nor the possessor of the baby, but the deliverer.26 Scott Gibson proposes an image of a preacher that disciples through preaching. The spiritual guide perceives their responsibility as guiding the development of their listeners to faith and maturity (Gibson 2012, pp. 68, 71). John McClure outlines an image of “preacher as host” where the preacher invites people to the table with their gifts, which are then placed by the host into dialogue with the word of God.27 The host performs their duty by maintaining Christ and the mission of the church as the center of the conversation and makes the offerings into something to be shared by all.28 Understanding these images of feeding, birthing, guiding, and hosting shifts the preacher’s view of their role from informing speaker to supporting facilitator.

This change in self-conception makes way for new practices. One preaching method where the practices of Weimer’s facilitator role are seen is in Eugene Lowry’s well-known “loop”. In Lowry’s Homiletical Plot, step three is the moment of “disclosing the clue to resolution.” (Lowry 2000, p. 53). In this step, the preacher is doing less telling so listeners can do more discovering. Lowry’s method rests on trusting the listener to follow the steps and arrive in a new place of deeper learning.

Another way to practice the work of facilitative preaching is to follow Weimer’s principle of modeling how experts learn. In this, the facilitative preacher self-discloses their own learning methods and gives a glimpse into how they have come to their current understanding. One way to do this would be to direct listening-learners to the sources used by the preacher for theological stimulation or encouragement. Another way to do this would be talking about the stages of understanding that led the preacher to their current viewpoint. It could be fruitful to explain how at one time something was believed, something new brought up a question, and a new stance was taken. Modeling the steps and processes of learning allows the learner-listeners to feel comfortable with allowing their beliefs and understandings to grow.

5.2. The Balance of Power

Weimer’s second aspect of learner-centered teaching calls for a change in the balance of power. In a typical classroom, the power lies with the teacher.29 The structure of the course, the standards of grading, and behavioral rules for the class are all part of the expected domain of the teacher, leaving the students with little power.30 Weimer believes that “when teaching is learner-centered, power is shared with students, not transferred to them wholesale.”31 She focuses on the results of power sharing, which is a positive and constructive environment born from a renewed sense of community where everyone feels they belong.32 This sharing of power by allowing students to have input and control over their learning is central to the success of learner-centered teaching.

In learner-centered preaching, preachers are also called to share power with their learners. This is to realize, like Weimer, that “the way I was teaching might benefit me more than them.”33 Preachers can then recognize the inherent power and control of the pulpit. They might ask themselves, “Where should the power of the church lie?” Learner-centered preaching believes that it lies with the constructed community, sharing power between those who are regularly powerless and those who are often powerful. The result of this rebalancing of power is not only greater learning but greater community, intimacy, and mutual indebtedness. Balancing power can have significant ramifications for the church’s health and flourishing.

Fred Craddock’s work models rebalancing power in homiletics. In his book, As One Without Authority, Craddock states that sharing power between speaker and listener through dialogical preaching increases the power of preaching (Craddock 1987, p. 19). This speaks against the perception that sharing power will diminish the efficacy of the sermon, and instead reveals that power may be multiplied when rebalanced. Dialogical preaching is born on the back of a rebalanced power between preacher and listener. When preachers view the congregation as capable, beloved conversation partners; accurately view themselves as ever-learning teachers; and chiefly assess the word of the sermon and Word of the text as something offered by God, dialogical preaching will not be an affected act but a true expression of the preacher’s heart and mind.34

In John McClure’s writing on leadership and preaching, he emphasizes the need for power that “invite[s] or permit[s] others to assume responsibility for the direction of their own lives and to assume leadership roles themselves.”35 He proposes that this is accomplished by doing out three things. The first is creating more intimate relationships between the leaders and the congregation. The second is inviting the church into the role of discerning the Word. Finally, by allowing the church to persuade the leaders, as opposed to only allowing the leaders to persuade the church.36 Using the collaborative preaching practice proposed by McClure can be another way to support balancing power. His method involves forming listening groups that discuss the scripture together with the preacher prior to the proclamation of the message.37 This creates a place for the church and community members to use their perspectives to influence the preacher’s message and to have control over what is being taught.

Many other avenues exist that can create rebalanced power in the pulpit. One avenue is preaching with less certainty, which can allow the listeners to become learning partners. Preaching with less certainty is the idea that the preacher might not have all the answers or know everything. A preacher could offer space in their sermon to acknowledge lingering questions they have, or places they feel might need more consideration. Space could be made in the sermon to encourage the congregation to approach the preacher after church or throughout the week with their own ideas and input on the matter. This intentional humility and openness communicates a powerful trust in the listening-learners and allows them the opportunity to teach the preacher something as well.

5.3. The Function of Content

The function of content is the third element of learner-centered teaching that Weimer believes needs to change. Specifically, she believes that course material does not need to be understood by teachers as something to be “covered” and that teachers need to be rid of the belief that more content is better.38 According to Weimer, there are many reasons the function of content needs to change. One reason to change the function of content is because reducing the volume of content creates increased retention and an opportunity for deep and lasting learning.39 Another reason to adjust the content is because focusing on content neglects explicit instruction on learning skill development, application, and skills for ongoing self-education.40

To accomplish this change in the function of content, a new understanding of content’s use needs to be realized. Weimer believes that it takes more than “covering” content to create student learning; instead, in a learner-centered approach, content should accomplish two purposes: to build a knowledge base and to develop learning skills.41 Content then becomes more than information, but something to be discussed, applied, and used.42

This issue of the function of content also needs to change for preachers. There is a tempting attitude among preachers to believe that if they have preached a certain text, addressed a certain theological topic, or covered a particular spiritual practice, then it has been learned by their listeners. This reveals a pattern of thinking that once something has been spoken in the pulpit, it has been retained and learned.

Much like teachers, preachers are asked to consider the function of content in their messages, and to allow a shift in understanding, preachers may need to ask themselves if their sermons are focused on covering a text, accomplishing a goal, or disseminating information. If these questions are answered affirmatively, preachers might then work to shift their focus to connecting new information to information previously held by listeners, reducing the amount of material covered in a message, and making space for developing skills.

In homiletics, questions of the function of content have already been raised as seen in Haddon Robinson’s book, Biblical Preaching. Robinson promotes a sermon focused on one “big idea”. He says, “Three to four ideas not related to a more inclusive idea do not make a message; they make three or four sermonettes all preached at one time.” (Robinson 2014, p. 16). This ties in well with what Weimer presents about the function of content and the value of more material. Learner-centered teaching rejects the idea that “more content is always better.”43 Like Robinsons’ “big idea”, sermons should be focused on making one point well, not falling prey to the notion that more material—ideas, applications, scriptures, stories, quotes, and poems—make a sermon better.

A change in the function of content is well expressed in Rob O’Lynn’s perspective about application. He says that it is not enough that a listener can report on what the sermon was about. To sustain meaningful, transformative change more than idea development must take place, but instead application in the form of skill development must happen (O’Lynn 2024). This reveals what could be gained by decreasing content in favor of making space for skill development through application.

Preaching to encourage ongoing self-education is another way preachers could engage in the reconception of the function of content. Weimer says that “College graduates need to leave us knowing as much about learning content as they know about the content itself.”44 This thought could be easily brought to the pulpit. If a preacher preached in a way that taught learner-listeners how to ask questions of the text, how to consider the implications of the text about God and humanity, and how to attempt to apply it to their lives, they would be offering a greater service to the congregation’s discipleship and faith than if they simply instructed them on what each text meant and what to do about it.

5.4. The Student’s Responsibility for Learning

The student’s responsibility for learning is the fourth element that learner-centered teaching invites us to change. Weimer reports that the issue of students not taking responsibility for learning is rooted in the over-responsiveness of the teacher.45 By trying to motivate students through rules and “tricks”, teachers cultivate students who are not internally motivated learners desiring to be life-long learners.46 This over-response robs the student of the onus of learning and places it on the teacher.

The solution, as Weimer presents it, is to build a classroom where the responsibility of learning is removed from the teacher and returned to the student. Weimer states that “learner-centered teaching is about creating classrooms in which students begin to mature and act more responsibly about their own learning and toward the learning of others.”47 She concludes that the desired classroom climate that creates students responsible for their own learning is accomplished through logical consequences, consistency, high standards, caring, and a commitment to learning.

The connection to homiletics is less clear in this area of learner-centered teaching. Preachers do not have to manage the classroom, write a syllabus with behavioral standards, or maintain standards for learning. However, the connection can be seen in the way preachers are often over-responsive. Preachers can fall into a pattern of trying to “trick” people into listening, motivate them into attending, and provide them with a simplified message. In this unbalanced relationship, the mantle of learning and engaging with the sermon is not placed on the listeners but is instead placed on the speaker.

Weimer’s solution must be translated to the congregational setting. Unlike a classroom, preachers do not need to motivate students to learn for grades, future classes, or careers. In fact, in some ways, the stakes are higher. Congregants who are motivated to learn become vibrant disciples who are transformed by the gospel. Preachers, by creating a climate that encourages listeners to take responsibility for their learning, help their listeners move from being passive absorbers of a message to actively engaged listeners. These engaged listeners seek to connect the message to their lives for growth in the fruit of the Spirit, which is the essence of spiritual formation.

This issue of creating an environment that forms active, responsible listeners has only been negligibly explored in the field of homiletics. It remains a fertile field for research exploration. For this essay, four areas of proposed integration in line with the learner-centered approach are offered.

Demonstrated care for the listening-learners is the first area. An expected part of pastoring, demonstrating care, is now also acknowledged as an element of teaching. Preachers show care not only by displaying passion about what they are teaching, but passion about how it connects to their learning listeners’ lives. Teaching within preaching can be conducted in a way that reveals a sense of tenderness and sympathy for the very real struggles and griefs in the lives of the congregation.

The next element of creating a climate that fosters responsible learners is the preacher revealing their own ongoing learning. This demonstration of ongoing learning can be shown in the preacher’s engagement and passion for the sermon material.48 Mentioning new realizations and discussing areas of growing understanding reveals a value for learning which helps foster a desire to learn within students.49 Weimer states that, “Students benefit when their teachers are learning (whether it’s in a course they’re teaching or taking, or on their own), because those teachers have fresh experiences being students.”50 By being ongoing learners, preachers invite the listeners to learn alongside them.

Another way to create a climate that helps the listening-learners in the church take ownership over their own learning is by motivation through options. Research by Paul R. Pintrich reveals that “students who believe they have more personal control of their own learning and behavior are more likely to do well and achieve at higher levels than students who do not feel in control.”51 Since control of learning increases student success, preachers might seek to offer control to their listeners in two ways. One is preaching multiple angles in the same sermon. When preaching a sermon, a preacher can suggest that the listeners might see themselves in the position of any one of the characters in the narrative, offering flexibility as to which lesson to receive that day. Another way to offer control is regularly employing surveys that allow the congregants to comment on what they might like to hear preached. The listeners would be given the opportunity to offer topics, questions, and scripture passages.

The final suggestion for creating an environment that fosters deep, internally motivated learning is drawn from two key findings about active learning. The first is an understanding that individuals are more likely to learn more when they learn with others than when they learn alone.52 The second is that meaningful learning is facilitated by articulating explanations whether to oneself, peers, or teachers.53 Because of this, a preacher might attempt to engage the congregation in the work of summarizing.54 Having the congregated assembly turn to each other after the sermon is concluded and spending a few minutes summarizing the message provides a chance for both group learning and articulating explanations of what is being learned.

In the end, the preacher would be wise to remember that “[t]he ultimate goal is to equip students with the learning skills they need to teach themselves.”55 This means that within the teaching aspect of preaching, the focus is not just on listeners gaining knowledge, but also on training the listeners to learn independently.

5.5. The Process of Evaluation

The process of evaluation is the final element of learner-centered teaching. Weimer details what needs to change about the process of evaluation: the emphasis on grades and GPA. Weimer humorously notes that “grades very effectively indicate how good students are at getting grades.”56 She points out that they are inefficient measuring tools of true learning and are often so subjective they lack integrity and purpose.57 A new method for learning evaluation must be adopted.

One of Weimer’s proposed solutions to the issue of evaluation is rooted in the research conducted in the area of self-assessment. She says that research supports the ability for students to reliably self-assess in a way that matches up with the assessment of both peers and teachers.58 Weimer takes this a step further and reminds readers that the skill of self-assessment is also an essential part of learning and that involving students in their own assessment can provide development of this skill.59

For preachers, the issue with the process of evaluation is that there is no method for evaluation. How would a preacher be able to measure or make any claims on the success of listener learning? More importantly, how would a listener be able to reflect on their own learning and growth? These are problems to which learner-centered teaching might offer solutions.

The emphasis on self-assessment offers a possible avenue to connect to the goals of preaching. In order to encourage evaluation through self-assessment, a preacher might offer space in their sermon for the listening-learners to faithfully evaluate in what way the sermon’s message is pertinent. Because each sermon cannot be evenly applied to each person, as congregations have varying degrees of spiritual maturity and gifting, self-assessment is individualized. Different messages offer different learning opportunities for different learners.

A preacher might prepare a place in the sermon for self-assessment after they present the “problem” of the sermon. In Paul Scott Wilson’s Four Pages, this might look like presenting the trouble in the Bible, and before moving to the trouble in the world, asking the congregation to discover these connections themselves by assessing their own lives (Wilson 2018, chp. 4). In Lowry’s loop, this could be a part of the “Ugh” while the discrepancy is analyzed (Lowry 2000, p. 39). This self-assessment works in the affirmative as well. When new learning is called for or an application is presented in the sermon, the preacher can take a brief moment to ask the learning congregation to reflect on how successful they already are at practicing this new learning. In this way, the preacher can provide a set-aside space for self-assessment.

Since most learners do not possess instinctive self-assessment skills, they must be taught. One way Weimer suggests teaching self-assessment is through the careful assessment of anonymous or hypothetical others.60 Conveniently, preachers have an entire book of narratives and characters that can be assessed to teach the skills required for self-assessment. Additional stories and images shared as a part of the sermon can also become case-studies to practice assessment skills that lead to better personal self-assessment.

A third way self-assessment could be used in preaching is within a sermon series. When preaching a sermon series, a preacher might offer an opportunity during both the first and final sermons of the series for learner-listeners to self-assess their personal level of skill or understanding of the topic. Using comparative evaluations can encourage listeners to become more aware of and responsible for their growth. This skill-building of assessing one’s growth provides a method of evaluation for both preacher and listener.

6. Conclusions

The intentional and comprehensive use of learner-centered teaching practices can make preachers more effective for the learning and transformation of their listeners. By emphasizing the learner-centered practices already being done and adding additional learner-centered elements, the preacher and the listeners have more opportunities for deep learning that leads to transformation. To increase transformation for listeners in congregations, preachers can implement the essential principles of learner-centered teaching in the following ways:

• Considering the metaphors that foster a facilitating posture for the teacher–preacher.
• Adjusting the balance of power with humble, learner-influenced preaching.
• Reducing content to allow for practicing self-education.
• Using care and expert–learner modeling to increase learner responsibility.
• Practicing and encouraging self-assessment.

The title of this essay promises the transformation of the preacher as well as the listener. To adopt a learner-centered mindset is to create an internal shift, directing the focus of the sermon to the listener, not the preacher. This shift is a catalyst for the transformation of the preacher as they allow the idea of their role to change to a facilitator; share the power of the pulpit with the listeners; reveal their own ongoing learning; and open themselves up to listener input. In learner-centered teaching, the students are seen as partners in the learning process, offering new ideas and exploring questions.61 There is a permeability to the teacher–learner relationship in learner-centered teaching that, when replicated in the preacher–listener relationship, can offer the preacher a chance to learn from those in the assembled gathering. This learning from the listener has the power to transform the preacher, making the power of transformation communal.

Learner-centered preaching is not a wholesale overhaul of preaching technique but is about attitude changes and small practical differences that create avenues for increased learning. It bridges the gaps between several concepts already present in preaching circles, as cited in this essay, allowing for a framework under which these ideas can be more efficiently applied by the preacher. These ideas are not all new to preaching, but the structure of learner-centered teaching and its less applied elements offer fruitful new directions for effective sermonic growth. The use of learner-centered principles and the transformation of the preacher will offer postmodern listeners a reason to listen to preachers. The way these principles address authority, power, and community brings homiletics and homileticians into greater alignment with postmodern listeners. This alignment and the preaching elements outlined in this essay have the power to transform the preacher, and through the preacher, the church, and through the church, the whole world.