Public Speaking & Speechwriting
The Interfaith Minister’s Guide to
the Art of Homiletics
This certification enhances and elevates public speaking
and speechwriting for beginners and seasoned professionals.
A 10-module course, it is video-based with required
assignments and a final video submission project.
No admission is required!
This course is designed to meet ministers where they are and work with them to enhance existing talents and develop new ones.
Prepare for a career in spiritual counseling, chaplaincy, or interfaith ministry.
Rooted in science and surrounded by heart- centered intention, this course will walk the participant through the steps necessary to become an exceptional communicator.
Exceptional is a high bar. For some, a bar that is seemingly out of reach. However, with practice and armed with the scientific knowledge about communication modalities, equipped with heart- centered skills for connection, and the careful applications of the tools of the craft, it is a bar anyone can achieve.
Communication is an essential part of being. The learned masters of anatomy, psychology, philosophy, and religion are all in agreement about one thing: communication comprises the very nature of our relationship with the other.
Through a myriad of means, methods, and modalities, we spend the bulk of our waking hours communicating with other people. Like any skill, communication can be honed, crafted, and tailored to become a powerful tool to move hearts and minds.
As a minister, the need to be an effective communicator is paramount. Ministers are charged with the awesome responsibility of helping people move closer to their understanding of the Divine. What could be more important than that?
This is why it is essential that ministers are not just capable but exceptional communicators. In their hands is the power to spark the imagination to a greater understanding of the Divine. In the ministers’ gift is the ability to help open the hearts of congregants, to fall deeper in love with the Divine.
Public Speaking & Speechwriting – The Interfaith Minister’s Guide to the Art of Homiletics Course Curriculum
Module One: Course Overview
- Module 1: Course Overview
- Module 1: Assignment
Module Two: Homiletics
- Module Two: Homiletics
- Module Two: Assignment
Module Three: Theology
- Module Three: Theology
- Module Three: Assignment
Module Four: Rites, Rituals, & Ceremony
- Module Four: Rites, Rituals, & Ceremony
- Module Four: Assignment
- Invitation to Speak Questionnaire – Free Download
Module Five: The Power of Perception
- Module Five: The Power of Perception
- Module Five: Assignment
Module Six: Elements of Good Communication
- Module Six: Elements of Good Communication
- Module Six: Assignment
Module Seven: Elements of Good Speechwriting
- Module Seven: Elements of Good Speechwriting
- Module Seven: Assignment
Module Eight: Timing, Pacing, Silence, a Stopwatch
- Module Eight: Timing, Pacing, Silence, a Stopwatch
- Module Eight: Quiz – Passing Grade 70% or higher!
Module Nine: Visuals, Mechanics, & Speechifying Start to Finish
- Module Nine: Visuals, Mechanics, & Speechifying Start to Finish
- Module Nine: Quiz – Passing Grade 70% or higher!
Module Ten: Bringing it all Together!
- Module Ten: Bringing it all Together!
- Module Ten: Final Assignment
- Public Speaking Course Downloadable Reference Guide
About Your Course Instructor
Reverend Eric Kowalczyk, M.Div., has dedicated his career to helping leaders and organizations communicate with integrity and impact – especially political campaigns and municipalities as well as both local and state law enforcement agencies. He has spent the last six years working with and leading teams of experts who help identify and execute end-to-end communications and crisis management strategies for a wide range of governments, law firms, municipal agencies, political campaigns, other organizations, and initiatives. Eric’s passion is working to address issues of disparate treatment in minority and disadvantaged communities.
He is the author of The Politics of Crisis: An Insider’s Perspective to Prevent Public Policy Disasters. Eric has developed a national reputation as a dynamic and engaging public speaker. Specializing in crisis communication and leadership strategies, he draws on his vast experience – in real-world, academic, and training environments – to bring a new modality of communicating with moral integrity to varied professional audiences.
Eric is a veteran of the Baltimore Police Department. As a Captain in the department and Director of Media Relations, he helped the agency as well as Baltimore’s mayor and other leaders confront and navigate the communications issues during the Freddie Gray riots and communicate to its hundreds of thousands of constituencies at the local level, in the glare of a national spotlight. While simultaneously facilitating local, national, and international media, Eric focused on transparency and accountability to connect with an already mistrusting public and implemented a crisis communications strategy and plan that was widely praised by media across the county as responsive and understanding of community concerns.
In addition to Eric’s role as a public speaker and educator, he works intimately with clients to address their most acute challenges in areas such as leadership strategy, critical incident mitigation, strategy development for crisis resolution, crisis communications, public affairs, municipal communications, internal/external communications strategy, and media relations/training.
Eric has consulted with a U.S. presidential, gubernatorial, senate, house, and mayoral campaigns. He is a member of several national professional associations and has a vast network of government and law enforcement contacts throughout the U.S.
He has trained more than 2,000 communications specialists in 41 states and 75 cities across the United States. Eric has presented at numerous national conferences, including the 2021 Parliament of the World’s Religions, and he is a 2016 TEDx Beacon Street speaker. He is on the Executive Board of the Southern California Committee for a Parliament of the World’s Religions and the Advisory Board for the Cobb Institute. Eric is an interfaith minister and holds a post-graduate degree in Divinity.