Wheaton College students spend their Thursday nights in a variety of ways. Frantic studying, night classes, multiple visiting lecturers and hours of intramural sports keep campus buzzing late into the night. For Mansell Amos, a sophomore Bible and theology major, and his six “preaching brothers,” Thursday nights are spent gathering to pray, discuss assigned readings, prepare for sermons and practice preaching.
These men are part of Chaplain Angulus Wilson’s informal, after-hours preaching lab. They’re all aspiring pastors who have been meeting weekly since the fall semester.
“I think this experience has made me fall in love with the Word not more than I was, but in a different way,” said Amos. “It’s made me want to study it and learn it because I want to preach it with the most integrity I can.”
Amos first sought out Wilson’s advice and expertise in March 2023 when he was preparing a sermon for the youth group at Gospel Life Church. Wilson and Amos met several times over the next few months and, while discussing how valuable the experience had been, the idea of the Preaching Lab was born.
The Lab, as it is known among the group, was conceived as a practical setting to apply the theology learned in the classroom, hone oratory craft and prepare for ministry life after Wheaton. Amos started by reaching out to about 30 students who had mentioned their interest in pastoral ministry. Six have had the availability to attend for two hours on Thursday nights since the fall of 2023.
Wilson smiled as he recalled watching this cohort develop.
“I’m seeing God give me the desires of my heart, even while I’m here doing my chaplaincy work and leading and shepherding,” he said. “He’s given me an opportunity to reach out and to be available for these students… and join God in what he’s doing.”
While this experience is set up to help students prepare for local preaching opportunities, they are also assigned books on preaching to consider and passages to preach on. The group tends to work on a four-week cycle. In the first two weeks of the month, the students focus more on readings and preparation. At the end, they present the group with their ideas and outlines. In the third week, they meet at the audio recording studio in the basement of the Billy Graham Hall to practice their sermon and receive real-time coaching. In the fourth week, each student does a live preaching simulation in Armerding Recital Hall.
Many of the students discussed how helpful it has been to practice this process alongside peers and with loving supervision. Mark Curcio, a sophomore studying Christian formation and ministry, said the Lab is the highlight of his week, and that he’d learned more about how to center a story on the gospel.
“I have learned that expository preaching needs to stay in the Word of God and mainly focus on the passage,” Curcio said. “I have learned the importance of bringing every sermon back to Calvary and back to the cross because that, ultimately, is the greatest news of all.”
Wilson said the collaborative, discussion-based model with a small group helps him cater to the needs of each student. For the curriculum, he’s pulling from his nearly 15 years teaching homiletics, the art of writing and preaching sermons.
Each student has a different level of experience, and they come from a variety of faith traditions. The five undergraduates and two graduate students collectively bring to the table Pentecostal, Anglican, Evangelical-Free, Baptist and Presbyterian perspectives. Wilson said he teaches from an “evangelical black Baptist preacher philosophy.”
“We pride ourselves on not comparing our preaching styles to one another but rather building one another up in love,” said junior communication major Xaviere Jones. “This camaraderie has been so beneficial for me in my walk. With so many different personalities, it has taught me and all of us that our own preaching styles are unique and are used by God.”
Regardless of denomination, each student is learning to preach in an exegetical framework. Wilson teaches them how to walk each of their specific audiences through the stages of observation, interpretation, application and inspiration. He said that this instruction “works better if the students are connected to a local church and they’re already working in a ministry of some capacity.” For undergraduates, organizations like Young Life and local youth ministries are where many get started.
For Jones, weeknights in the Preaching Lab are where he finds encouragement and strength.
“Coming into the preaching lab, I thought I had it all figured out when it came to preaching,” said Jones. “But God dealt with my heart and my pride and I’ve learned to rely on Him more than anything — rather than to rely on my own understanding and words.”
As of right now, the Preaching Lab only has male students, but Wilson was excited about receiving the first email from a female student asking to join. Although the Lab is geared toward pulpit preaching, students interested in other forms of preaching, such as open-air ministry, are also welcome.
“We really want to open it for anybody that feels like God has called them to preach his word in the context of ministry,” said Wilson.
The Lab is set to continue next fall, and they are hoping to bring in new students who are interested.
“This is for somebody who has that burning passion and knows ‘I’m called to proclaim God’s word,’” said Wilson.
