Sally A Brown teaches at Princeton Seminary and Luke A Powery teaches at Duke Divinity, and no doubt they collaborated on this book while Luke was still in residence in Princeton as a scholar and professor. It is a good thing they did for this is a first class treatment of the task of preaching today. Yes, it tilts noticeably in the direction of the progressive or mainline Protestant tradition; almost no attention is given to expository preaching and their attitudes toward the use of technology are cool. But everything else is hot! I mean ready to use, ready to inspire, ready to influence what thousands of men and women are doing each week: preaching a sermon.
“Learning to preach for your time and place” is the sub title, and I like that very much, as will you. This learning is nestled deep in the spiritual practices; in fact, the first 100 pages is devoted to the spiritual formation of the preacher and the sermon–it is powerful, and rare, and they even quote Charles Haddon Spurgeon!! From front to back this book is a strong and sturdy affirmation of the function of preaching in the formation of people as disciples of Christ. This is done, they contend, by bringing the listener into the story of the Bible. “The core rhetoric of Christian preaching is to declare God’s promise to make all things new.” This stands over against moralism, emotional manipulation, and political mobilization. It is a strong gospel-centered description of what the preacher is called and anointed to do.
Here is one of the many sentences I underlined in this book: “Preaching’s aims should not solely be to talk about Christ but to offer Christ in such a manner that the community may meet Christ” (32). And this: “The real challenge for preachers is to pray better than we preach and we may never reach that telos if we never discuss it in the homiletics classroom” (54). And this: “Many others have explored this biblical territory before us. Their trail notes are recorded in Bible dictionaries and commentaries, journal articles, and sermons from the past” (124). And this: “A good sermon takes you to a destination worth getting to…and it leads you there by a path you can follow” (151). And finally: “How one preaches is just as vital as what one preaches” (190).
Of special interest to me were the two plus pages that outlined Six Skills Every Preacher Needs; that sounds like an entire book itself. But the book that needs to be written out of this one is suggested in the very last chapter: Preaching and Christian Formation. I wager this is the title of class taught by one or both of them; and I would pay full tuition for the privilege to sit in on those lectures and conversations. Please, Sally and Luke: write a whole book on this topic!!
And speaking of books? Perhaps the very best feature of this wonderful book is the annotated bibliography at the end of each of the 10 chapters: 71 in all. What a treasure! Thanks be to God for this wonderful book.
Dwight A. Moody
May , 2016