Raymond McLaughlin Preaching Award

I was extremely honored and thankful not only to read scripture today, but also to receive the Raymond McLaughlin Preaching Award from the faculty of Denver Seminary at our commencement ceremony. The homiletics department chooses six top students to preach in chapel during spring semester (my sermon was titled, “When to Say, No”). The faculty selects one student to receive the preaching award. Raymond McLaughlin was the first homiletics professor at Denver seminary.

I am thankful to my peers and the faculty at Denver Seminary for seeing God's wonderful hand on me. I am thrilled to join Denver Seminary's great legacy of fine preachers, who are trained in Haddon Robinson's highly effective method of Big Idea preaching. I want to give a special thanks to my good friends and mentors, Mark Hanke and Eddie Broussard, for diligently training me to handle the Word of God with skill and wisdom. I thank Dr. Scott Wenig, chair of homiletics at Denver Seminary, for his contagious enthusiasm and passion for preaching, and for his deep belief in me as a preacher. Most importantly, I thank Erika, who has constantly, and boldly, reminded me to share my unique voice by being fully me on those days when I tried to be someone else. Praise Jesus for taking a person who could barely speak in the second grade, and gracing him with such an incredible honor.