Sermon of the Year 2018: Interview with Top 10 finalist: Freddie Ingle
Rochelle Owusu-Antwi, Communications Manager at LWPT caught up with Freddie Ingle, a preacher from London. His submission will feature in the SOTY book of sermons. Read his thoughts below:
R: Why did you decide to enter Sermon of the Year?
F: As a fairly new and quite a young preacher I try to take every opportunity to hone my craft where possible. In fact, the last piece of advice I received from my lead pastor was:“ Do as much preaching as you can” and it was about a week after that that I saw this competition and I thought that would be an excellent opportunity. I thought it was a great skills challenge and honestly that was all I expected from it: I wasn’ t expecting to get anywhere.
R: How was it finding out you were one of the top ten entries?
F: Incredulous is the word I’ d use. I genuinely, legitimately didn’ t believe I’ d be shortlisted; I was confused slightly and sort of tried to think of reasons how it could have possibly happened. Upon realising that this was actually happening I was elated really. It was a real encouragement for me as preaching is a primary calling and it was encouraging for me to know that despite the few sermons I’ ve preached that perhaps there is something there and God has given me a gift there.
R: Why do you think it is important that Sermon of the Year exists?
F: SOTY promotes preaching which is crucial and I think preaching is hugely significant. If people are devoting themselves to preaching it will make an enormous difference: I honestly think it will change lives, which will then change cities, which will then change countries and therefore change the world. Preaching is not the only thing that does that, but it’ s a vital part of that change. SOTY also encourages people who maybe don’ t get opportunities to preach to be able to. I noticed that last year the winner had never preached a sermon before in her life and the competition gave her opportunity to that. It just gives them a chance to go:‘ well hang on I have got a message and a gifting here’. Which is great because the more preachers, the better. •
More information on the finals can be found online at: www. preachweb. org / sermonof-the-year
8 LWPT