Review: Practicing The Preaching Life
Who among us has not heard (or preached!) sermons that were exegetically accurate, homiletically correct, thoughtfully applied and adequately delivered, yet which still seemed to fall flat? All the essential pieces are in place, yet there is a sense that some intangible quality (Authenticity? Credibility? Wisdom?) is missing. David Ward, Professor of Homiletics and Practical Theology at Indiana Wesleyan University, addresses this problem with the principled assertion that “preaching is more about life than it is about skills.”
Andy Crouch: Why We Can’t Change the World
The conversation on Christianity and culture has been enriched and stimulated in recent years by the insights of Andy Crouch. In his book, Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling, Crouch has offered his own taxonomy of Christian responses to culture. He identifies four strategies for cultural change, based primarily on the record of American Evangelicals in the past century.
Review: Wired for Story
Can preachers learn anything from specialists in communication who have no direct interest in preaching? We’d better. In fact, we always have. From the New Testament onward, Christian preaching has “baptized” the prevailing rhetoric of each era in service of the gospel. For this reason, I occasionally like to read a book written by a contemporary rhetorician.
Review: Biblical Theology and Preaching
Must Christ be preached from every text? Is it realistic, or even right, to expect that every sermon should proclaim the Gospel? Can you be true to the original intent of the human author behind the text while also tying it to the grand intent of the divine author over the text? Graeme Goldsworthy would answer each of these questions with a resounding “yes!”
Review: Reading for Preaching
One of my missionary supervisors once told me that the first step towards connecting with the secular Europeans with whom we wanted to share the Gospel was simply to “be an interesting person.” Cornelius Platinga’s book, Reading for Preaching, has just such a goal in mind.
Review: Telling God’s Story
If you are mainly interested in continuing to preach the way we always have, only better, you should probably avoid this book. John Wright is not willing to allow us to pursue business as usual, at least not without taking a hard look at what “business as usual” actually is.
Review: Keller on Preaching
When a preacher who has communicated the Gospel faithfully and effectively for over three decades to secular New Yorkers writes a book on preaching, we should all sit up and take note. I’ve never known Tim Keller to disappoint, and his new book on preaching is no exception.