Beeson Podcast, Episode #699 Reverend Brady Graves Date >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your host, Doug Sweeney. >>Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast, our weekly effort to shine a light on the things that God is doing here at Beeson in and through our people. I am your host, Doug Sweeney. We are glad you’re back with us. We’ve taken the summer off and replayed for you some of the greatest hits of former podcast episodes and now we’re back doing regular podcasts every week. My first guest of the academic year is my colleague Brady Graves. Brady serves as the Program Manager of Beeson Spirit and Power Project, which is part of our Robert Smith Jr Preaching Institute. Brady is a Beeson grad. I know him very well. He was in my mentor group and a class that I taught. He and his wife, Victoria, who is also on staff – serving as our Project Coordinator, our Programs Coordinator, are expecting a baby. We’ve got all kinds of things to ask Brady about today. Brady, thanks for being with us. Glad to have you. >>Graves: Sure. Glad to be here as always. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. So, the main reason we want you on the podcast today is we want to tell our people all about the Spirit and Power Project and how they can get involved in it. So, let’s just start out at the most basic level. What is this new project and why are you working on it? >>Graves: Sure. That’s a great question. The Spirit and Power Project was born out of a very generous grant from the Lily Endowment, Lily Foundation as part of their Compelling Preaching Initiative. So, the Spirit and Power Project exists to equip aspiring and active preachers to proclaim the gospel faithfully in a variety of contexts, to diverse audiences, for the glory of God to build up the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, that’s the very overarching theme, goal, aim of the Spirit and Power Project – what we might call the SPP throughout this podcast, just in way of abbreviation. It’s all about equipping preachers. >>Doug Sweeney: And Beeson Divinity School of course exists in the service of the church, primarily to form pastors. And as we’ve said for many years we want to form pastors who preach well. So, we’re grateful to the Lily Endowment for helping us with that in a special way these next five years. Okay, the thing on the podcast our listeners have heard about already that has taken place under the auspices of the Spirit and Power Project is the first inaugural summertime preaching conference that we did this past summer in honor of Dr. Robert Smith Jr himself. Tell us a little bit about that and how it went and how people can benefit from the fruits of the conference. >>Graves: Sure. That was our first major undertaking of the Spirit and Power Project. And I think that everyone that attended, everyone that worked on it would agree that it as a resounding success. We accomplished a variety of goals in that. One of our main goals is that we exhibit and celebrate exemplary preaching. And so we wanted to not only honor and celebrate the ministry of Dr. Robert Smith and the ways that he has impacted Beeson and the preaching ministry of so many people – not only at Beeson but in the world – but we also wanted to expose people to exemplary preaching; which anyone who knows Dr. Smith knows that he is the preacher of preachers. He’s the exemplary preacher extraordinaire. Not only that, we also had other guest preachers that got to speak. And through that we exposed the Beeson community and the larger community to excellence in preaching. Not only that, it was a great time of fellowship. It was a great time for Beeson alumni, for friends, for family, for all of those who have been impacted by Dr. Smith’s ministry to come to enjoy one another’s company and to worship the Lord together. So, in many, many ways it was a wonderful few days full of fellowship, great preaching, and worshipping our Lord together. >>Doug Sweeney: And we’ll have some of the recordings of some of the sessions from that conference on our Beeson YouTube page. And we’ll add a program note as we drop this podcast episode so people can go benefit from that. >>Graves: Listen to it, it’s great. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. So, next summer you’re doing another one. There’s going to be five of these sponsored by the Lily Endowment, that is, all together. What are we doing next summer at the preaching conference? >>Graves: Still in the works, still getting some planning done. But we know for sure that our keynote speaker is going to be the renown preacher and theologian Alistair McGrath. So, Dr. McGrath is going to come in and he is going to walk through various themes and again we’re going to be exposed to some very exemplary preaching. So, it’s going to be very similar to this last year’s with new speakers, new preachers, new worship. It’s going to be exciting. We’re very, very excited about it. Details to come. We know that will be from July 15-17, 2025 right here on Beeson’s campus. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. I hear there is a theme for next year’s preaching conference that has to do with apologetic preaching. Tell us a little bit about that. What is apologetic preaching? Is this something that all preachers do or should do? What is the point of that theme? >>Graves: That’s a great question. So, a big push for the 2025 preaching conference, like you said, is cultural apologetics in preaching. We live in a world where the gospel of Jesus Christ is no longer assumed. It’s no longer normative. And so the call of the preacher is not only to preach the good news of Jesus Christ but to do so in a way that convinces a culture that is not necessarily convinced of the gospel to be convinced of the gospel. This is not an apologetics course. It’s not a class in defending the faith. What it is, is exposing preachers to exemplary preaching that does both preaching the gospel of Christ and at the same time making a strong theologically robust apologetic for the faith. And there is a way that preachers can and should be doing both of those things. It looks different contextually. Maybe an Anglican service will look different in that way than a Baptist service. But all of these people will benefit greatly from hearing the different preaching styles, the different denominational affiliations, and the different keynote speakers talking about how to preach apologetically. We’re very excited about it. It’s going to be very helpful for the Church. >>Doug Sweeney: Yeah, it sounds to me like the kind of preaching conference that obviously is aimed mainly at pastors who preach sermons on a fairly regular basis. But maybe would be interesting to other kinds of people as well who are involved in gospel witness, who do evangelism, who want to kind of tap into the apologetic theme of the conference. Are they allowed to come, too? >>Graves: Certainly. Not only allowed but encouraged, invited. We’re excited to have people. This is for everyone. This is for pastors, priests, lay people, worship leaders, evangelists, street preachers, anyone who is interested in faithfully proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in a world that does not assume that anymore. I think everyone could benefit from it in their own capacity, in their own context, and everyone should try their best to attend. >>Doug Sweeney: Fantastic. All right. So, in addition to the five big annual summertime preaching conferences, what else do you do at the Spirit and Power Project? >>Graves: Sure. We exist to equip both aspiring and active preachers. So, what that means is you don’t have to have a week in and week out preaching gig to be invited to our program. We want anyone who in any capacity is affected or interested in the preaching of the gospel to come to our events. And so this could be an undergraduate student who has never preached a sermon, or this could be a 50 year veteran pastor who preaches three times a week. We think that there is something for everyone. And we think that when the preaching of the gospel goes out we know that it does not return void and it doesn’t matter who is preaching the gospel. It can be an inexperienced novice or the most experienced veteran that there is. And we think that there’s something for everyone in the Spirit and Power Project. So, to that end, this semester and next semester – the two academic semesters in the year – in each semester we’ll have two preaching lunch and learns. And these preaching lunch and learns are open to the public. Obviously our students will be there, undergraduate students will be there, but also people in the public we anticipate being there. What this is, this will be pastors in local congregations coming in and preaching through various themes, teaching through various themes of preaching. So, for example, this semester in the fall in September we’ll have a pastor come in and talk about preparing to preach through Advent. And then in November we’ll have a pastor come in and talk about preparing to preach through Lent. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. So, that sounds like if you’re a guy like me who goes to a Lutheran Church that fits just fine, or if you’re Anglican that fits just fine, but what if you don’t really do much with Advent and Lent in your church? Is this for you, too? >>Graves: That’s a fantastic question. So, as a lifelong Southern Baptist, I will benefit from it just as much. So, anyone who is interested in preaching is encouraged to come. This is not just for liturgical congregations. This is not just for what we would call “high church” congregations. In fact, one of our speakers this semester is a Southern Baptist pastor – whose church does not observe necessarily the liturgical calendar. >>Doug Sweeney: So, what is he talking about? >>Graves: So, the way that he is going to incorporate preaching through Lent, as I understand it, is he is going to talk about how we (I saw “we” because I’m a member of his church) ... He is going to talk about how we as a church every Sunday in the liturgy of our church as a Baptist church, we incorporate these Lenten themes of confession, of repentance, of the assurance of pardon, of looking towards the resurrection. So, as a Baptist who might not explicitly preach through Lent, he’s going to talk about how we incorporate Lenten themes into our weekly liturgy of worship. >>Doug Sweeney: Wow. All right. So, let’s get a little clearer on who should come to these things. You talked about there will be a bunch of students there. I guess the speakers are mostly going to be pastors. But as the Dean, I want pastors and ministry leaders from the area mixing it up here and contributing to the overall experience that we’ll all have at these events. Who should come? >>Graves: Sure. Everyone. Anyone at all in any way who is interested in preaching, who is interested in the life of the church, who is interested in getting a free meal at Beeson if they register online, which we can talk a little bit more about. Anyone is invited. I think that anyone who attends will benefit greatly in whatever ministry – whether that be vocational or non vocational. Whatever ministry they find themselves in. I think that these will be highly beneficial for everyone – students, faculty, pastors, non pastors, lay people. ANYONE. They’re invited and we want them to be here. >>Doug Sweeney: And if you’re a ministry person coming from off campus – this is sort of a lunch break time for you. >>Graves: Absolutely. >>Doug Sweeney: You get fed, both physically and you get in some really helpful spiritual and intellectual ways, too. >>Graves: Certainly. 12:30-1:30 is that time slot. So, we’re going to provide some meals for these people. And I’m going to enjoy them myself while we sit there and listen to some really great pastors teach us about what it means to preach through these certain times of the year. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. What do we have to do to sign up if we want to come? >>Graves: That’s a great question. Everything that is going to be under the umbrella of the SPP is going to be on BeesonDivinity.com. So, everything that we’re having for the SPP is going to be on Beesondivinity.com. Go over to the Robert Smith Preaching Institute dropdown, you’ll see all of our events right there. Registration for these events that we’re talking about are free. We’d love for you to sign up. Come get a meal, and celebrate with us. >>Doug Sweeney: Okay. And you can find out the schedule there, too and just sort of get into all the weeds. >>Graves: Everything is online. >>Doug Sweeney: Great. What about the annual conferences? That probably costs a little bit, right, to register for? >>Graves: Sure. >>Doug Sweeney: I participated in the last one. I’m biased. I’m the Dean of the school, but I thought it was fantastic. We had a really great group of people there. There was a lot of energy, a lot of love in the room for Dr. Smith, and a lot of good takeaways as well for those of us involved in preaching ministry especially. >>Graves: Yeah. So, there is a cost involved with some of these events. Some of them are free, some of them cost a little bit, all of that will be on the website, but I guarantee you no matter what you’re paying or not paying you’re going to get your money’s worth or something great for free. We encourage everyone to attend if they can. And again, this is for everyone. This is not specifically for preachers. This is not specifically for pastors or for theological students. We think that there’s a great benefit to these events for every single Christian, every single person who is interested in preaching, every single person who is interested in the proclaiming of the gospel. We think that they could get a lot out of these events. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. This is still a pretty new enterprise. How long have you been serving as Program Manager? >>Graves: So, I got here in January, at the beginning of the year. So, we’re almost eight months into it now. Learning a lot as it all unfolds. We’re learning how to roll out this program how to incorporate it into the life of the seminary, into the life of these local churches. So, after about eight months we’re still learning but we’re very excited about the future. >>Doug Sweeney: Great. Do you have ideas yet for the last few big annual preaching conferences? Or if there are pastors listening now and they would really love a conference at Beeson on a certain theme – is there still opportunity for them to ask questions and kind of weigh in? >>Graves: Please. I would love that. If you could in the show notes maybe we can put my contact information. I am open to suggestions. It’s early, so we love to hear how we could help local pastors, we could help local Christians, we could help people that are interested in these types of things be involved in this. We don’t want it to just be something we enjoy. We want it to be something that’s helpful to anyone who might attend. So, please, if my information is in the show notes, click on the link, send me an email, and I’d love to have a conversation with anyone about something that they might benefit from. >>Doug Sweeney: Yeah. I love these things that we do where there’s cross pollination between what’s going on in the school and what’s going on in the churches that the school exists to serve. Not only do we provide lots of great continuing education opportunities for people involved in ministry in the churches, but we love to have people who have been doing ministry in the churches faithfully for a long time, or even a little bit of time come to campus and rub shoulders with the students and help us form the next generation of ministers of the gospel, preachers of the word. >>Graves: Certainly. Yeah. And we have many programs ... again, we have some student led programs, we have programs that we’re going to give students the opportunity to get in a local context and preach a sermon. Maybe they’ve never preached before. So, we’re giving these students these opportunities. But we also have opportunities for people who maybe have been students or are not students and have no intention of being students. We have preaching peer groups where local pastors, wherever they are in the country, local pastors can form these groups and we’ll give them a little stipend each semester, they can meet together, maybe go over a book and just share life together to encourage one another and to equip their preaching. That’s for anybody that’s in preaching ministry! And we also have preaching development cohorts. That’s where we have a Beeson preaching faculty member lead a small group of preachers through maybe a book or a lesson for a whole entire year. Just kind of that formal lifelong life education. So, we have opportunities for people in all stages of their preaching ministries. >>Doug Sweeney: Yeah, that’s great. Talk about iron sharpening iron. >>Graves: Absolutely. >>Doug Sweeney: Okay. Maybe that’s enough for now on the Sprit and Power Project. Again, if you want to learn more, go to beesondivinity.com and go to the Robert Smith Jr Preaching Institute column and check out all the details. >>Graves: Right there. >>Doug Sweeney: We’ll have Brady Graves’ contact information in the program notes. So, if that’s too hard for you, just bug Brady. >>Graves: That’s what I’m there for. >>Doug Sweeney: He’ll be happy to help you out with that. All right. The last thing I wanted to ask you about is more personal. Brady, you’re a former student, former student of mine, alumnus of this school. Now you’re working with us on the Spirit and Power Project. You’re also doing a PhD on the side because you don’t have enough to do already. And as we go through all these things with you we’re also watching a baby develop in your wife, Victoria’s womb. How is that going? What are you learning about being a father and a husband these days as you anticipate the birth of this baby? >>Graves: The Lord has been unspeakably kind to us. He has blessed us in so many ways. Being able to come to work together every day, that is an unspeakable blessing. It’s something that we both love, we enjoy it. And so when we found out that Victoria was expecting a baby that was a long term prayer that was answered. And so the Lord was very kind to us. We’re expecting her to be here in November. >>Doug Sweeney: All right, the gender has just been revealed. You’re expecting HER. >>Graves: Yes, we’re expecting a little girl. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. November? >>Graves: November 20th is the due date. >>Doug Sweeney: Of course you never know, but that’s what they’re saying. November 20th. Just in time to give thanks on Thanksgiving for a new little child. Wonderful. All right. Well, that’s a lot that helps us to know how to pray for you already, but that was my last question for you. How can our listeners be praying for you? How can our listeners be praying for your wife, Victoria, and this little one who is coming? And how can they be praying for the Spirit and Power Project here at Beeson? >>Graves: Sure. There’s a lot going on, as maybe you can glean from this conversation. Help with my studies as you know, doctoral work is no small undertaking, so be praying for continued faithfulness and diligence there. That the Lord would continue to grow me in trust and allegiance to Him and His gospel. That every day and every decision I would make would honor Jesus Christ and proclaim Him as the only source of goodness and power and glory. That Victoria and the baby would continue to be healthy, that we would have a successful and safe delivery. And that for the Spirit and Power Project that everyone who works on this project we would just be faithful in equipping preachers for God’s church. Because how can people hear the gospel without a preacher? >>Doug Sweeney: Yeah. All right, listeners, you have been listening to Brady Graves, the Reverend Brady Graves, who serves as Program Manager for Beeson’s Spirit and Power Project. A wonderful new initiative in preaching at Beeson Divinity School enabled by the generosity of the Lily Foundation. Please pray for Brady and his wife, Victoria, as they get ready to become parents. Please pray for the students of Beeson Divinity School. We’re recording this podcast episode on the second day of classes in the fall semester here at Beeson. The students are excited and a few of them are a little worried now that they’re seen all their syllabi and trying to figure out how to get things done. But the Holy Spirit is at work in some very special ways in this place. We love you, listeners. We are praying for you. If you want to learn more about the Spirit and Power Project, call Brady Graves or tune into our website, call me – I’d be happy to tell you about it as well. We say goodbye for now. >>Rob Willis: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast; coming to you from the campus of Samford University. Our theme music is by Advent Birmingham. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our engineer is Rob Willis. And our show host is Doug Sweeney. For more episodes and to subscribe, visit www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast. You can also find the Beeson Podcast on iTunes and Spotify.