Preaching Justice brings together eight very diverse voices from eight distinct cultural/ethnic communities, challenging them to articulate the specific justice concerns, issues, and passions that give rise to a preaching ministry within the their own community and beyond. Theological analyses are offered by theses persons representing their particular communities: Kathy Black - persons with disabilities Martin Brokenieg - Native Americans Teresa Fry Brown - African Americans Eleazar Fernandez - Filipino Americans Justo Gonzalez - Hispanics Eunjoo Mary Kim - Korean Americans Stacy Offner - Jews Christine Marie Smith - lesbians and gays This volume offers a rare vision of what transforms preaching might sound and look like, and urges that all preaching - whatever community it comes from, whatever community it hopes to reach - be grounded in the sacred acts of listening and knowing.

Moralizing about justice from the pulpit is easy. Explore what it means to genuinely preach justice, and to teach congregations what it means to put justice at the heart and soul of the church's mission and witness.

The principal concern of this book is not complex theoretical discussions of justice so common to the discipline of ethics, but how working for justice fits into the church's mission and especially into its preaching. An opening chapter sets forth a biblical and theological basis for the conviction that justice is at the heart of the church's mission and witness. Then follows a chapter on preaching that distinguishes between merely moralizing about justice and genuinely preaching it. The remaining chapters in the book speak of preaching justice in dialogue with current contextual realities such as: (1) the racism of our American context, (2) the church's pentecostal heritage of communicating in and through all cultures, (3) the fact that much of the injustice in our society is a by-product of greed in its individual and enculturated manifestations, and (4) the need to deal appropriately and faithfully with the multicultural context of today. A concluding chapter brings the preacher back into the context of the church and its gospel foundations, that is, the source of preaching justice and walking together with the people of God in quest of it. James M. Childs is the Joseph A. Sittler Professor of Theology and Ethics and Academic Dean at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of Faith, Formation, and Decision: Ethics in the Community of Promise (1991) and Ethics in Business: Faith at Work (1995). For: Clergy, seminarians, homileticians, ethicists, peace-and-justice readerships, students of mission and modern culture

This is the final volume in a unique new commentary series that helps the preacher identify and reflect on the social implications of the biblical readings in the Revised Common Lectionary. The essays concentrate on the themes of social justice in the weekly texts and how those themes can be teachable moments for preaching social justice in the church. In addition to the lectionary days, there are essays for twenty-two "Holy Days of Justice," including Martin Luther King Day, Earth Day, World AIDS Day, and Children's Sabbath. These days are intended to enlarge the church's awareness of God's call for justice and of the many ways that call comes to the church and world today.

The call to holistic preaching has many dimensions. Are we called to preach the good news of God's grace? Advocate for justice? Is preaching worship? A prophetic act? "Yes," Jennifer Ackerman answers--to all of the above. Through personal stories, biblical examples, and concrete advice, readers will learn how to join gospel and justice in community. Ackerman draws on her experience as a practitioner, teacher, and director of Brehm Preaching--A Lloyd John Ogilvie Initiative at Fuller Theological Seminary to provide concrete tools for readers seeking to develop their capacity for preaching with a relational focus. Ackerman helps us think about preaching through the lenses of community, justice, worship, and prophecy. The work of the church is work best done together, both within congregations and as ministers connect with fellow practitioners. Grounded in Scripture, with tangible resources and exemplar sermons, Preaching the Gospel of Justice is a hands-on tool for translating theory into practice.

The New Interpreter’s Handbook of Preaching is a major reference tool for preaching, with articles on every facet of Christian sermon preparation and delivery. This resource is both scholarly and practical. It focuses on the most distinctive feature and greatest strength of homiletics as a discipline: It is rooted in interdisciplinary scholarship and it develops theory geared to practice. Its theory arises out of the study of both excellent preaching past and present and actual sermon preparation and composition. When theory and practice critique each other, it is possible to produce guidelines that assist greater excellence and economy in preaching the gospel. Excellence in standards is an area in which homiletics needs to grow, and this project will be both a means to encourage and develop it. A guiding question throughout will be, Will it preach? The answers will be offered in the sense that “here is something that works well,” rather than “here is something to try.” Preachers will turn to this resource with the expectation that they will find scholarly treatment of topics, brief bibliographies of relevant key books and articles, along with practical methodological suggestions for preachers to employ. The contributors are homileticians, preachers, and writers in various disciplines who are committed to the pulpit through practice.

Preaching is a way of life that can be beautiful and good; however, It can also be anxious, self-focused, and destructive. Preachers and teachers of preaching need a holistic view of preaching that not only paints the way to good preaching, but also to good living. They need a comprehensive practical theology of preaching that combines the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ with the ‘how’ and 'whom’ of preaching. Practicing the Preaching Life unites Christian practices, contextual virtues, and the best of homiletical pedagogy to pave the way to a beautiful preaching life. Preaching is best learned as a formative Christian practice embedded within a web of other Christian practices that form a way of life from which great sermons emerge. Therefore, preaching requires not only a way of speaking well, but also a way of living well. This embedded nature of preaching requires the enrollment of Christian practices in the formation of the preacher and the pursuit of contextual virtues for preaching that avoid cultural relativism on the one hand and cultural imperialism on the other. These requirements lead to a new vision for the preaching classroom, the rhythms of the preaching life, and the definition of what it means to be a good preacher.

Preachings most able practitioners gather in this book to explore and explain the idea that preaching is a practice that can be taught and learned. Arguing that preaching is a living practice with a long tradition, an identifiable shape, and a broad set of norms and desired outcomes, these noted scholars propose that teachers initiate students into the larger practice of preaching, in ways somewhat like other students are initiated into the practice of medicine or law. The book concludes with designs for a basic preaching course and addresses the question of how preaching courses fit into the larger patterns of seminary curricula.

How do particular world situations impact preaching? How does a preacher use the gospel and Scripture to speak to those situations? This volume, in honor of homiletician David Buttrick, explores the complex and important relationships between world, gospel, and Scripture and their relevance for preaching theology.This book is for those seeking thoughtful and challenging new ways to approach the preaching task now and into the twenty-first century.