Courtney Evans,

Ms. Megan Weaver,

Rhetoric 101,
10/17/2014

Cover letter

My goal in this assignment is to show you how preachers/pastors are all one discourse
community and how that discourse community works in and helps our society. Some of my
weaknesses in this paper would be my grammar, how well I get the information across, and my
transition into different subjects throughout the paper. Some of the strengths of this paper will be
the insider information I have on pastors because I attended a Christian School and was very
close with many of the pastors at my school. When reading this paper please focus on grammar,
spelling, anyways to better get my point across better and also keep in mind that I am only
focusing on the good part of preachers and preaching.

When we think about preachers we dont see them as a community, we only see them as
a single unit working by themselves. In reality though preachers are a community of men (dare I
say a discourse community) that are all working towards one goal; to bring people to Christ and
to share Gods word. I will show that the preacher community is a discourse community by
looking at their goals, written text, communication, how they talk (aka their lexis), shared
passion, and the old and young members that are involved in this community and how all these
things work together through examples and personal experiences.
All these men in the preacher community share a common passion for God and
discovering the mysteries that the Bible and God bring to human kind. Through this passion they
are highly dedicated to sharing this information that they discover with one another and the
world. One example of this would be how Dr. Mike Whitson shares a message that he has
researched and looked into ever Sunday. Like his message about healing and how if you are
badly afflicted its probably because you are doing something that is affecting your body badly
and then he uses examples that he found such as; alcoholism and liver damage, smoking and
cancer, sex and sexually transmitted disease and relates those back to actual historical and
biblical situations to give his point more merit. By sharing this discovery and point through his
message we as the listener are taught something new and applicable that we can now share with
others just as Dr. Mike Whitson shared it with us.
All preachers use the gospel and other accredited sources to learn and see what God has
to say about certain situations, its basically their shared text that almost all preacher follow. One
example would be when I attended a class, that was for history and bible, where two preachers
talked about the text that they use when preparing for a sermon and how these text and research
helps them to be better equipped for any questions their congregation might have regarding their

message. Such as whether what they are saying is actually true and can answer truthfully and
confidently that these are my sources its not just me saying something; but someone who has
taken a lot of time and effort who is accredited and a professional in this field. This is important
because when you think about preachers and whether or not they are just pulling this stuff from
their butt or the bible you will see that most preachers take the time to actually research what
they are talking about.
When preachers communicate with one another its usually by email, phone calls, and
social media but most of the time this communication only occurs between preachers that work
and speak at the same church or have worked with one another before. The form of
communication preachers usually use is intercommunication between those in their line of work
who will understand what they are talking about. When I was communicating with one of my
sources, youth pastor Lance Bradley, he told me that email and face to face were his preferred
way to communicate with other preachers and that he usually asked others in his line of work
any questions he had.
I have noticed when I talk to preachers that I dont usually understand what they are
saying when they are talking to just one another because they use Latin words and roots and
bible language and words/verses when describing certain things and situations. One example of
this would be, when I was doing my research I was sitting in on a message that Dr. Mike
Whitson was preaching, which was about how there are multiple ways to be healed in todays
society and God knows what is going on in your life and he starts using specific verses from the
Gospel of John and the book of Exodus. By using these specific verses it shows that he took time
to study and look deeply into the subject that he is discussing with the congregation. He uses
large educated words such as oblivious and sexually promiscuous to get his point across and

catch people attention. I believe that preachers have picked this way of talking up over time by
reading and studying different bibles, religious text, and seminars as shown through the above
example.
Most of the preachers I have met and talked to are very educated and know what they are
talking about even if they dont always look like they would know all this information (so dont
judge a book by its cover). Of course none of this knowledge could come about if there were not
older members that helped accumulate this knowledge for the newer preachers that have just
joined their community. One example would be how the church of First Baptist Indian Trail has
multiple different services catering to many different persons and that each of these different
services has a different leader. When I attended last Sunday October 12, 2014, I went to a more
hip youthful service lead by a young youth pastor name Lance Bradley who took his cues from
the older pastor Dr. Mike Whitson on what direction to take the service. What I found most
fascinating about this service and its message was that it was a prerecorded version of the more
traditional message that was at 10 for the older members in the large, fancy chapel. Once the fun
music and worship session was done we had a meet and greet where I noticed that most of the
members where younger just like the youth pastor. I was waiting for my friend when the early
message ended and I noticed that there were a lot of older folks attending that message. Why this
is important is that it shows the church needs these older and younger preachers so that they can
draw more people into the churches to hear what wisdom the older preacher has to bestow upon
them. So when it comes to the case of older and newer members for the preaching community,
we see that it is a much needed and beneficial relationship to have an older preacher like Dr.
Mike Whitson and a younger member like the youth pastor Lance Bradley to make the church

run and do its thing. Keep in mind that there are more pastors on staff but these where the two
that I saw personally in action.
When researching for this paper I went about in many different ways. One of the ways
that I researched was by attending a Sunday message at my friends church called First Baptist
Church of Indian Trail that has an 11 oclock message called the Lift which is for a younger
group that she attends. I arrived very early because I didnt want to be late and I was also raining
like crazy. When I parked a bus from the church came and got me and dropped me off t the
childcare center where I ended up having to wait for the rain to stop. While waiting the early
more traditional service let out which allowed me to observe how the preachers and the
congregation interact after the service. After that I left and went to the 11 oclock service and
observed how people reacted before, during, and after the service. I then got the email of the
youth Pastor Lance Bradley and asked him some questions about how preachers work. I also
have a friend who is attending school at the moment to become a priest and had him answer
some questions about why preachers do what they do and how they do it. When doing my
research I went online to the churches website and re-watched Dr. Mike Whitsons message from
Sunday where I got even more information on preachers. And my last from of research was
going back and remembering my own personnel experiences with preachers and what I know
about them.
Through these many examples and explanations we can now properly see that the
preacher community is indeed a discourse community. Through looking at preachers goals,
written text, communication, how they talk (aka their lexis), shared passion, and the old and
young members that are involved in this community and how all these things work together

through examples and personal experiences we are able to see the amazing way the community
of preachers comes together to make on big happy discourse community.