Preaching

The reflections on the daily gospel presented here by Segundo Galilea are simple but meaningful reflections which can be used in the Eucharist and daily meditation.

"Preaching is indispensable to Christianity." World-renowned preacher John Stott opens this book with those five bold words. He maintains, further, that "nothing is better calculated to restore health and vitality to the church than a recovery of true, biblical, contemporary preaching." Stott was aiming to foster such a recovery when he wrote Between Two Worlds, which has become a modern evangelical classic.

The genius of this book is the way it synthesizes and distills Stott's wealth of wisdom on preaching, focusing not so much on technical matters but more on theological foundations and on necessary personal characteristics of the preacher--sincerity, earnestness, courage, and humility. Preachers old and new will continue to find much to chew on in these pages.

When Elizabeth Goodman first arrived at the tiny congregation that would become her home as a pastor--a congregation of about seven people in a town of just under a thousand--the longest-standing member told her that though the congregation was small, her preaching need not be. In this collection of sermons, readers will witness a mind at work amidst a faithful congregation (whose numbers are now around thirty), mutually nurtured, and together having no small amount of fun. Meanwhile, the ramifications of the gospel in the world will sneak up and surprise. Guided always by a spirit of play and by scripture, as it is in conversation with life, Goodman illuminates both the quiet suggestions that undo what we think we know and the startling demands that are to be both feared and desired. This congregation has a tagline: ""It's not what you think."" They are probably right. ""This is a book of thirty-three sermons for both preachers and non-preachers. Preachers will discover rich resources for their own preaching ministries. But they will also find what non-preachers are looking for--faith nurtured, hope stirred, and guidance for Christian discipleship in the midst of honest and authentic questions."" --Erskine Clarke, Editor and Publisher, Journal for Preachers ""Elizabeth Goodman has provided a gift to everyone who longs for the beauty and wonder of God to break into our lives and to transform our world. Rarely is a collection of sermons so theologically rich, offering reflections on scripture that, like the Spirit herself, take us by surprise and lead us where we never before dreamed possible."" --Phil Snider, Author, Preaching After God ""Reading this book of sermons is like having an unfailingly interesting conversation with a friend who happens to have a degree in theology. Neither shaken by questions nor satisfied by glib answers, Goodman is a treasure."" --Louisa Gilder, Author, The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn ""I don't know Elizabeth Goodman, but her sermons make me want to know her. Perhaps more importantly, her sermons make me want to better know the God of whom she speaks. Goodman writes with an intoxicating blend of gravity and lightness."" --Anthony B. Robinson, Author, Transforming Congregational Culture and What's Theology Got To Do With It? Elizabeth Goodman has been the pastor of the United Church of Christ in Monterey, a ""hilltown"" of the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts, since 2001. A lifelong member of the UCC and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, she is a regular contributor to the Journal for Preachers. She lives with her husband and their two sons at the foot of October Mountain, which makes for a good daily hike with her dogs.

Henry H. Mitchell's great contribution to the study of preaching has been his insistence that the homiletical practices of the Black church are gifts to the whole church. Nowhere has he made this point more forcefully than in Celebration and Experience in Preaching. In this classic text he advocates a way of preaching that genuinely engages all aspects of the congregation's attention, especially the ability to both understand and to feel the sermon's message. In this revised edition Mitchell builds on this groundbreaking work by examining in greater depth the multiple ways in which we experience the preached word, by defining the different kinds of claim on the behavior of the hearer that biblical texts express, and by exploring various genres of sermon to discover the concrete manifestations of celebration and experience.

One of America's foremost and best-loved preachers delivers here not only 44 new homilies for different occasions but also his secrets for giving an effective sermon. These methods go beyond generalizations and show how to speak meaningfully to a particular audience at a particular point in time. In traveling around the world, Burghardt says he does not "bring" the word of God there. Instead, he believes his role is to discern God's word where it already exists.

The all-new homilies are for the liturgical seasons, weddings, feast days, and such miscellaneous occasions as graduations and convocations. Each is scripturally based, relates the biblical events to our own lives today, and incorporates both anecdotes and contemporary world affairs. Each is also "classic Burghardt"--a tight, logical 3-part structure that is also literary, graceful, and passionately concerned with justice.

The collection includes an index to all thirteen volumes, making it ideal for clergy of all Christian denominations, for professors of homiletics, and for the many people who read Burghardt's sermons for private inspiration.

Scott addresses the ten meals which Jesus shared with people that are recorded in the Bible. These occasions demonstrate the importance that Jesus placed on meeting people socially and interacting with them in their personal settings. It is in the intimacy of a shared meal that hidden emotions are often revealed -- and Scott shows how Jesus met them with searching insight, always offering his healing grace. Originally written for midweek communion services during Lent, these messages are excellent for communion services throughout the year.

When the Baptist movement began four centuries ago, revolutionary forces had destabilized the centers of social control that had long kept women in their place. In the early seventeenth century, Baptist women began to speak their minds. Through their prophetic writings, these women came to exercise considerable influence and authority among the early churches. When Baptists became more institutionalized later in the century, the egalitarian distinction dissipated and women's voices again, for a long history, were silenced. However, long ago, in early Baptist life in England, women did preach--well and often.

In A Company of Women Preachers, Curtis Freeman collects and presents a critical edition of these prophetic women's texts, retrieving their voices so that their messages and contributions to the tradition may once again be recognized.

L. Susan Bond reveals the full range and diversity of African American preaching in this exploration of African American homiletical theories. Portraying the many approaches that are empowering preaching in African American churches today, Bond shows how different theological perspectives produce different methods of sermon preparation and delivery, different strategies for selecting illustrative material, and even different ways of beginning and ending sermons. Her goal is not to lift up the "right way" to preach in the African American tradition, but to show the richness and nuance contained within this powerful cultural expression.

In short, anecdotal chapters, the author explains how to diagnose a crisis (public, congregational, and personal) and offers six homiletical strategies for creating sermons when speaking during a crisis. The book includes: tips on how to discern a crisis; Biblical precedents for different kinds of crises; and, sample sermons in response to crises.

The Dancing Stones is a collection of positive, original stories and lessons with activities for clergy and lay leaders to use in preaching to children from kindergarten through upper elementary school. Written in a conversational style with suggested objects for sharing, the stories provide children's sermon ideas for the liturgical year. Among the sermon topics addressed include: A Lock without a Key, A Basket Case, Preparing the Manger, Stocking Surprise, Be Careful What You Say, The Great Knitter, and Climbing Out of a Hole.

Claiming that the obligation of all Christians to witness to their faith is inseparable from the need to acquire and practice the rhetorical skills of public speaking, this book confronts the issues of stage fright and speaking disabilities head-on, pointing his readers to the biblical narratives concerning difficult speaking.