Published on
April 15, 2016
Video length
109 mins
Preachers know that Sundays are relentless—there seems to be one every week. Mary Hulst and Peter Jonker are every-week preachers, too; each of whom has recently written a book to help preachers tackle their daunting task successfully week after week.

Peter Jonker will consider particularly how finding a controlling image is a powerful tool for propelling a sermon forward and for speaking to the listener’s imagination. Mary Hulst will help preachers recover basic tools that will keep sermons from going off the rails (and how to put them back on the rails in case things start going bad on any given week!). This seminar will be practical and focused on the wonderful, if challenging, task of proclaiming God’s Word to God’s people.

Participants: Mary Hulst and Peter Jonker, moderated by Scott Hoezee

Recent Media Resources

Preaching and Teaching the Psalms: A Conversation with Pastor-Theologians

A panel discussion in which Amanda Benckhuysen, Karen Campbell, G. Sujin Pak, and moderator Kathy Smith ponder the challenges and opportunities in preaching and teaching from the psalms. Are there incomplete or incorrect assumptions about the psalms that sermons and lectures can tackle? How do we handle the imprecatory psalms when we have a Savior who told us to love and forgive the very enemies many psalms talk about? The panel will consider these and other vital questions for preachers and teachers in today’s church.

May 14, 2026 | 89 min video
Being Shaped by the Psalms: Lessons in Trust, Hope, and Love

The psalms reflect our deepest emotions as people of faith. In their expressions of thanksgiving, trust, lament, anger, joy, doubt, and praise, these ancient prayers seem to peer right into our souls and put words to our thoughts and experiences. But the psalms are more than human words to God. Embedded as they are in the scriptures, they are now also God’s word to us.

May 12, 2026 | 80 min video
Surprised by the Psalms

Anneke Kaai studied fine art and painting in the Netherlands at secular schools in the 1960s and ’70s. That experience compelled her to express her Christian faith through her art. She has painted many works based on scripture, including three series of paintings on the psalms, which she sees as a bountiful resource of imagery for the full range of human feelings in relation to God.

May 5, 2026 | 90 min video