Guest scholars and pastors share their experience with Didasko Seminars

What scholars say

The Didasko seminar is exactly what I wish I had during the years I was teaching the Bible regularly in a local church. This is a chance to sit with a scholar who has dedicated years to studying a specific part of the Bible, working through specific texts with a room full of eager ministry colleagues.

In addition, every session includes a collaborative brainstorm on how to preach each text with its unique challenges and opportunities. Not only will you walk away with a fully developed outline for a sermon series or class, you also get a chance to build friendships and continue learning about Scripture in a communal setting. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

In my experience, these seminars represent the best practices for the intersection and integration of the Academy and Church. Pastors may spend hours combing through commentaries, but in these seminars, they can experience the benefit of academics distilling the most important information and tailoring it for use in a sermon.

Pastors will get the chance to ask their specific questions of an expert and then they have the opportunity to brainstorm and collaborate with other pastors about the best ways to preach through the biblical book. These are more than seminars — they are workshops that can help pastors grow both in their grasp of scholarship and in their hermeneutical and homiletical proficiency. Participating pastors can step into a network of scholars and colleagues who together are taking on the sometimes overwhelming task of preaching the Word of God effectively as they minister to their congregations.

Imagine getting big ideas and possible preaching outlines in collaboration with other pastor-teachers committed to biblical exposition, all under the tutelage of a scholar who has done specialized work on a particular book of the Bible and pastors committed to making it relevant—perhaps up to a half a year’s worth at a time.

The Didasko seminars make that possible, and build new friends and collegiality that can last longer still. They are some of the most rewarding ministry events I’ve ever participated in.”

The ministry of preaching is of course a privilege. But it can also become something of a burden, with the need weekly to study the Scriptural text and come up with a way to present it that will communicate its intent to one’s congregation.

The Didasko seminar experience offers a wonderful opportunity to re-charge one’s exegetical and homiletical batteries. In a format that, in my experience, is unique, the seminar is led equally by a scholar and a homiletition. The setting provides a great opportunity to wrestle with the challenge of faithfully proclaiming the text – in conversation with fellow preachers intent on the same goal. Highly recommended!

What Pastors Say

The Didasko seminars make that possible, and build new friends and collegiality that can last longer still. They are some of the most rewarding ministry events I’ve ever participated in.

I enjoyed getting to know other pastors as well. I learned from pastors that have been leading for decades and from pastors who were relatively new like me. It has enhanced my preaching and enhanced my connection with fellow pastors in our area and beyond. If you can make it to the Didasko Seminars, do what you can to be there you will not regret it.

As a pastor, commentaries and books help me prepare. Imagine if, before preaching a book of the Bible, you could spend a week with the author of one of the best commentaries on that book. Imagine if, instead of just reading the author’s words, you heard their voice and could ask questions.

Then imagine eating lunch with them! That is a Didasko Seminar! But Didasko is much more than time with a scholar. It is a room full of gospel-centered pastors committed to studying the same book and interacting with them on the important questions about it. Questions such as, “What is the big idea of this passage? How can we connect this with our audience? What are the cultural hangups that might keep our people from understanding? Where do we see Jesus in this text?” Answering questions like these, not in the isolation of my study but in the community of a Didasko Seminar, helps me understand the Bible better and preach it with greater clarity and conviction. I highly recommend Didasko! I haven’t found anything else like it!

The Didasko seminar revitalized my study and rekindled my passion for preaching. Within months, I was implementing fresh insights and delivering some of my most impactful (and shared) sermons to date!

Didasko seminars are absolute gold for two reasons.

First, Didasko seminars are like interacting with a living, breathing commentary. You can read a book anywhere, but this is the only place I know you can raise your hand and actually ask a question of the scholar who wrote it.

And even better, it’s like a homiletical think tank. Chris Dolson is a preaching mastermind who pivots the group from deep textual insights to lightning rod conversations that will give you compelling clarity for how to teach it.