An enthralling introduction to the art of preaching, or more specifically, how to tell the story. This delightful book is an excellent teaching resource and learning tool for all pastors from beginning students to seasoned pulpiteers.

Now in reissue with a new foreword by Fred B. Craddock and afterword by the author, Eugene L. Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, Expanded Edition follows in the same solid tradition of its predecessor. Upon its release, The Homiletical Plot quickly became a pivotal work on the art of preaching. Instead of comments on a biblical passage, Lowry suggested that the sermon follow a narrative form that moves from beginning to end, as with the plot of a story. This expanded edition continues to be an excellent teaching resource and learning tool for all preachers from introductory students to seasoned clergy.

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?

"I spend hours in my study and on my knees preparing sermons, but when I preach them no one listens. What's wrong? Why aren't I getting through? Why do I see blank stares, daydream reveries, nodding heads as soon as I open my mouth to preach? I know my messages are biblically sound. I'm sure I'm preaching what God has laid on my heart. But it's not being received. What's wrong? What can I do?" Sound familiar? If you're a preacher, you probably know the feeling. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can learn to preach in a way that will be readily, even eagerly, received by your congregation. It's all here: what inductive preaching is, how it works, why it's effective, who's used it—including Jesus, Peter, Paul, Augustine, St. Francis, Wesley, Edwards, and Moody, to name only a few. Also included are: * Step-by-step guidelines for constructing an inductive sermon * Two sample inductive sermons * A list of 96 inductive preachers from 20 centuries * A strategy for making traditional sermon structures inductive * A checklist of inductive characteristics. The principles in this book can dramatically increase your sermon effectiveness—turn apathy into involvement, make listeners out of the listless. Inductive preaching is preaching that works!

Pastors are continually looking for resources to make their preaching more powerful and culturally relevant. Old-school models based on three-point outlines do not resonate with today's churchgoers, who are accustomed to media-driven modes of expression. It's All in How You Tell It provides the tools and insights necessary to help both veteran and novice preachers move from ineffective habits into adrenaline-pumping, dramatic sermon delivery. They will learn to preach by retelling a scriptural account from the vantage point of a biblical character-combining the power of drama with God's Word. Nationally known preaching expert Haddon W. Robinson and his son, Torrey, examine issues such as exegeting a text for a first-person approach, structuring a narrative sermon, determining how to portray biblical characters, and staging and delivering the sermon itself. With this book seminary and Bible college students have the opportunity to build foundations for engaging, story-filled preaching ministries. The end result will be more preachers who "love to tell the story" and more church members who are hungry to hear it.

Homiletical Handbook is a primer for those who are called to preach. It is intentionally simple in its explanation of the homiletical task and straightforward in getting to the point. It is solid in its theology and biblical in its approach.

Buttrick presents a complete homiletic that focuses on how sermons form in consciousness and how the language of preaching functions in the communal consciousness of a congregation. His "phenomenological" approach marks a sharp departure from older homiletics.

In this compelling and hard-hitting book, respected preacher and teacher Thomas Long identifies and responds to what he sees as the most substantive theological forces and challenges facing preaching today. The issues, he says, are fourfold: the decline in the quality of narrative preaching and the need for its reinvigoration; the tendency of preachers to ignore God's action and presence in our midst; the return of the church's old nemesis, gnosticism--albeit in a milder form--evidenced in today's new "spirituality"; and the absence of eschatology in the pulpit. Long once again has his finger on the pulse of American preaching, demonstrated by his creative responses to these challenges. Whether he is calling for theologically smarter and more ethically discerning preaching, providing a method of interpretation that will allow pastors to recover the emphasis on God in our midst, or encouraging a kind of "interfaith dialogue" with gnosticism, he demonstrates why he has long been considered one of the most thoughtful and intelligent preachers in America today.

This introductory-level textbook from one of the best-known professors of preaching in the U.S. helps the reader understand the sermon in terms of the movement of time, place, shape, space, conflict, complication, and the "sudden shift" of the text.