Homegrown Preaching Contest

Homegrown: North Carolina Women’s Preaching Festival, is delighted to announce its first annual preaching contest. The preaching contest seeks to honor women* preachers who are committed to creative, authentic, pastoral, and fully embodied preaching.

The winner of the contest will receive a $100 prize and will be invited to preach her sermon at the 2022 Homegrown Preaching Festival (October 27-28, 2022). Please visit ncwomenpreaching.com to learn more about Homegrown. Note that it is our hope that the winner would be able to preach her sermon in person at the conference. If the winner is unable to attend the conference in person, it is our hope that she would either record her sermon to be played at the conference, or be open to preaching her sermon via Zoom at the conference. 

Two preachers will be selected for an honorable mention with recognition at the conference.

Sermon Guidelines

• The sermon should be between 10-12 minutes (approximately 1000-1200 words). 
• The sermon may use any sacred text.
• The sermon should be written and preached to the presumed audience of the Homegrown Preaching Festival. That is, the sermon should be preached to the women in ministry who might attend the Homegrown Festival. 
• To that end, the sermon should address the mission of the 2022 Homegrown Festival’s theme, “Digging Deep.” This theme can be interpreted broadly; you may choose to focus on threads of ecology, personal “excavation,” and placedness and rootedness in community. (These are only suggestions!)

Submission Guidelines

• Our preference is that you submit both a manuscript and a video recording of your sermon. Please be sure that both the manuscript and video are clearly marked with your name and email address.
• Submit your application materials through this link. Note that it will require a Google sign-in as it asks for a file upload.

The application is open for submission until September 30. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced on October 14. We will be in touch with winners on October 14 to determine their availability for preaching in person at the conference.

*All women-identifying individuals, regardless of age, denomination, race, or sexual orientation are encouraged to apply.