A week-long preacher training camp for ninth to twelfth-grade boys. Students spend the week on Harding's campus learning Bible study methods, sermon preparation, and delivery from faculty, students, and friends. More importantly, they learn that they can serve the LORD in a lifetime of ministry.
The annual Preachers Conference is sponsored by the College of Bible and Ministry and Harding School of Theology.
The conference features the annual Dave L. Bland Lecture in Homiletics, which highlights the place of preaching both in the academy and in the church.
Dr. Devin Swindle is associate professor of Bible and ministry at Harding, and he serves as preaching minister for Highway Church of Christ in Judsonia, Arkansas. He is also director of the Kerusso Experience. Swindle is a graduate of Harding University and Harding School of Theology. He and his wife of 18 years, Rachel, have four sons and love to hike, watch movies and cheer on the eleven-time World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals. Swindle has been preaching since he was eight years old and firmly believes he was called by God to preach and train up other young men to answer that call as well.
Matthew Love is the preaching minister at Beebe Church of Christ in Beebe, Arkansas. He came to Harding from Southeastern Ohio to study Bible. After his time in Searcy, he earned a Master of Divinity from Harding School of Theology. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in preaching at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He previously served as youth minister at Beebe for five years before transitioning into the pulpit ten years ago. In August 2024, he began teaching full-time at Harding School of Theology, teaching courses in Preaching and Ministry.
Dave L. Bland was born and raised on a farm in northern Colorado. He married his wife, Nancy Cochran, in 1976. They have three sons and six grandchildren. He has preached in congregations across the country, including Eastside Church of Christ in Portland, Oregon, and White Station Church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. He taught courses at Columbia Christian College in Portland for fourteen years, and in 1993 he moved to Memphis to begin work at Harding School of Theology as professor of preaching, where he taught for 30 years.
He is the author of several books, including Proverbs and the Formation of Character (Cascade) and Creation, Character, and Wisdom: Rethinking the Roots of Environmental Ethics (Wipf & Stock). He is now professor emeritus at HST and serves as an elder at White Station Church of Christ. He lives on an 80-acre farm in Somerville, Tennessee.
Dr. Phil Thompson was a member of Harding’s College of Bible and Ministry faculty from 2001-2022. Throughout his career at Harding, he served as director of the Center for Preaching and as assistant director of the Kerusso Experience. He taught courses in ethics, bioethics, preaching, and both Old and New Testaments. He has also been a keynote speaker for Lectureship and Preachers Conference. He received Harding’s Teacher Achievement Award in 2010.
In addition to his teaching roles, Dr. Thompson has served as preaching minister for churches in Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas and is currently serving the Rose Bud Church of Christ in Rose Bud, Arkansas, a position he has held since 2007. He has also participated in short-term missions in India, Bangladesh, Russia, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic, Germany, Anguilla and Jamaica.
Dr. Thompson holds a bachelor’s degree from Harding University, as well as a Master of Theology, a Master of Arts in ethics and a Doctor of Ministry in preaching, all from Harding School of Theology. In addition, he earned a Master of Arts in bioethics from Trinity International University.
He and his wife of 50 years, Liz Dyer Thompson, have three children and four grandchildren.
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