This thesis project offers a reflective practice-based learning tool to engage preaching experience--from the hearing side of the event--early in diaconal formation to build connoisseurship of effective preaching as the logical prerequisite to engaging the event as preacher. Chapter One proposes connoisseurship as a fruitful metaphor for building an appreciation for what makes for effective and transformative preaching with its slow, steady, and ongoing practice of tasting and reflecting. Chapter Two invites adult learning theory--and the burgeoning field of transformative learning theory born of it--into the conversation to inform both the structure and content of the reflective practice pages that are the building blocks of the thesis project intervention. In conversation with the "National Directory for the Formation, Ministry, and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States," the chapter offers a preliminary list of key principles salient to the pedagogical design of the project intervention. Chapter Three brings in the lens of practical theology with its consistent starting point in everyday lived practice and experience to sharpen the focus toward the deep faith context of this thesis project. The faith practices of preaching within the context of Eucharist and teaching preaching within the context of a deacon formation program suggest additional site-specific pedagogical concerns. The elements of a site-specific instructional design are now in place. Chapter Four details the thesis project learning intervention. The chapter outlines the purpose and process of the preparatory research that resulted in the project catalogue of characteristics and quotations, and it provides a thick description of diaconal formation in the Diocese of Evansville, with special attention to the role of Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, Evansville's partner in diaconal formation. An annotated example of a weekly reflective practice page and an analysis of its components relative to the site-specific pedagogical principles proposed in Chapter Three completes the chapter. Chapter Five presents and analyzes the qualitative data collected over the twenty-three weeks of the project with respect to both aggregate and individual participant trajectories toward connoisseurship of effective preaching. The chapter observes and interprets four consistent themes, notes limitations, offers recommendations for further research, and imagines next steps. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]