My claim is that preaching can be an effective means of engaging young people in their faith journey, even though they may have previously experienced church and worship as boring and irrelevant. For the young people of today who are often treated or see themselves as disenfranchised within the life ofthe worshipping community, there are models of preaching that can nurture a strong sense of empowerment and meaning. This is important for preachers to consider as we struggle with how to engage disenchanted young people in a journey of faith that is vibrant, meaningful, affirming, and part of the full worshipping community. Through surveys, group work, and testing of a preaching model, I examine the attitudes of youth and congregations to the experience of worship and preaching, and propose a working model of conversational preaching that helps to bring all members of the church together in active participation within the sermon event. Through applying the conversational preaching model, I show that the sermon is an effective tool in helping youth discover the church as a legitimate partner in their faith journey.
