Sermon Time: The Narrative Principle of Preaching

Promoting the idea of sermon as narrative, Eugene Lowry's first book, The Homiletical Plot, became one of the most influential preaching books of the latter part of the 20th century. While the sermon as narrative has become conventional preaching wisdom, it is largely misunderstood. Sermons are, by definition, narratives and as such, they have plots. At the same time, the sermon is not a story. While similar in many ways, narratives and stories are distinct. Therefore, to think of narrative preaching as merely one of many homiletical styles is to misunderstand and reduce the nature of the sermon. The sermon is more than just an option for the preacher; rather, it is, by definition, a narrative because it happens in time, not in space. This changes everything because the sermon ceases to be something a preacher constructs, like a thesis or even a painting. Instead, it is more like a piece of music - something a preacher plays within intuitively, to a constant beat - time after time, week after week. In light of this revelation, what are new strategic aims for sermon preparation and delivery?

Preaching and music are both regular elements of Christian worship, yet they often don't interact or inform each other in meaningful ways. Theologian, pastor, and musician Noel A. Snyder considers how preaching that seeks to engage hearts and minds might be helpfully informed by musical theory—so that preachers might craft sermons that sing.

A step by step guide to learning about preaching and more importantly how to craft and deliver a sermon. It offers a student friendly, jargon-free introduction that requires no prior knowledge of the subject.

Doing justice to the complexity of the preaching task and the questions that underlie it, author Paul Scott Wilson organizes both the preparation and the content of the sermon around its "four pages." Each "page" addresses a different theological and creative component of what happens in any sermon. Page One presents the trouble or conflict that takes place in or that underscores the biblical text itself. Page Two looks at similar conflict--sin or brokenness--in our own time. Page Three returns to the Bible to identify where God is at work in or behind the text--in other words, to discover the good news. Page Four points to God at work in our world, particularly in relation to the situations described in Page Two. This approach is about preaching the gospel in nearly any sermonic form. Wilson teaches the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ of sermon construction, all rooted in a theology of the Word. This completely revised edition guides readers through the sermon process step by step, with the aim of composing sermons that challenge and provide hope, by focusing on God more closely than on humans. It has been largely rewritten to include an assessment of where preaching is today in light of propositional preaching, the New Homiletic, African American preaching, the effect of the internet, and use of technology. A chapter on exegesis has been added, plus new focus on the importance of preaching to a felt need, the need for proclamation in addition to teaching, and developing tools to ensure sermon excellence. New sermon examples have been added along with a section that responds to critics and looks to the future.

In our increasingly pluralistic and multicultural society, there is a need for preaching that is capable of crossing cultural boundaries and engaging multiple contexts. Jared Alcántara's exciting new work proposes an intercultural and improvisational account of preaching in conversation with the legacy of Gardner C. Taylor.

Maybe we should read Genesis 37–50 as the story of Joseph and Judah. Both kept their families alive and received major blessings from their father Jacob. Like his brother Joseph, Judah knew how to use words to lead and persuade, primarily by appealing to common experience. His speeches model Kenneth Burke’s rhetoric of identification, “inducing cooperation” by showing his listeners how they are consubstantial—that is, where they stand together. Preachers hope to do the same, making gospel connections between ancient texts and life today. Circles in the Stream shows that the connections are there in the Scripture text, freeing preachers from the pressure to find contemporary illustrations. Adapting Burke’s literary-rhetorical approach to reading, Paul Koptak offers ever-widening circles of reading to that end. Indexing a passage and looking for identification there lead to the transformative purpose and life issue. Intertextual study, a combination of both, discovers these connections in the wider two-testament canon. Circles in the Stream offers both a distinct perspective for reading Scripture and practical steps for in-depth study. Its method can make sermon preparation more efficient and effective. More importantly, it leads to the life-issues that listeners want their preachers to address.

In our highly sensory and interactive age, how might drawing upon various arts--music, film, architecture, dramatic performance, painting, fashion, and more--expand the aesthetic experience and mode of preaching? This book presents a critical, practical answer to the question. As our society becomes more visually oriented, art-seeking, and body-positive, the practice of preaching is likewise challenged to demonstrate the mind-body, word-visual, and artistic proclamation of the Sacred (after all, isn't the writing of the Bible itself highly art-full and aesthetic?). In this book, Sunggu A. Yang, a seasoned preacher and experienced teacher of preaching, encourages preachers to utilize their unique artistic talents as critical sources of theological and homiletical imagination and as hermeneutical-perspectival tools to aid their rigorous exegetical process of interpreting Scripture, eventually toward artistic-holistic sermon composition and delivery. A sample syllabus, included in the appendix, will greatly assist any preaching instructor who wants to offer a creative course on arts and preaching.