Introducing The Sermon

Today, traditional forms of preaching are being scrutinized and challenged. The biblical sermon is not immune to the pressure to evolve or even fall by the wayside, leaving pastors and seminary students confused over how best to communicate to today’s listeners. In this forward-looking textbook, Kenton Anderson delivers a strong call to current and future ministers to indeed choose to preach biblical sermons, despite the obstacles to doing so. While preaching itself is non-negotiable, the exact form it takes can be much more flexible, allowing people to hear from God as they hear his Word preached. Rather than presenting one model or process for preparing a sermon, Anderson explains several available options. As you discern your message from the Bible, will you begin with the text (deductive) or with the listener (inductive)? Will you focus on the idea (cognitive) or the image (affective)? The choices you make lead to five possible sermon structures: • DECLARATIVE—make an argument • PRAGMATIC—solve a mystery • NARRATIVE—tell a story • VISIONARY—paint a picture • INTEGRATIVE—sing a song Each model is described in detail and related to well-known contemporary preachers, including John MacArthur, Rick Warren, Eugene Lowry, and Rob Bell. This book equips you with a variety of tools for your preaching tool kit. A CD-ROM with additional helpful resources is included, as well as discussion questions and practical exercises.

Coauthored by a homiletician, a theologian, and a biblical scholar, this book is a preaching primer that provides tools for crafting effective, engaging, and inspiring sermons. Using a unique workbook-style format, Introduction to Preaching equips seminarians and preachers to use appropriate theological claims informed by solid biblical interpretation while providing several sample sermons from the authors. Readers will learn how to use a three-part schema—the Central Question, the Central Claim, and the Central Purpose—to provide the drive, direction, and destination for the sermon. Offering guidelines for using appropriate sermon forms, imagery, metaphors, and creativity, together with advice on how to deliver contextually relevant sermons using our bodies, presence, and voice make this a staple for both new and experienced preachers. Introduction to Preaching includes a chapter on exploring the space of preaching, including onsite and online sermons. In addition, it features charts and worksheets to help organize the sermon-writing process, as well as exercises for the preacher’s voice and body and tips for advice for guest preachers and supply preachers. A glossary of terms and an extensive bibliography make this a handy reference guide for students and all preachers.

Doing justice to the complexity of the preaching task and the questions that underlie it, 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 bestselling text by Haddon Robinson, considered by many to be the "teacher of preachers," has sold over 300,000 copies and is a contemporary classic in the field. It offers students, pastors, and Bible teachers expert guidance in the development and delivery of expository sermons. This new edition has been updated throughout and includes helpful exercises. Praise for the Second Edition Named "One of the 25 Most Influential Preaching Books of the Past 25 Years" by Preaching "[An] outstanding introduction to the task of preparing and presenting biblical sermons. More than any other book of the past quarter century, Biblical Preaching has profoundly influenced a generation of evangelical preachers."--Preaching

The Sermon on the Mount, one of the most influential portions of the Bible, is the most studied and commented upon portion of the Christian Scriptures. Every Christian generation turns to it for insight and guidance. In this volume, a recognized expert on the Gospels shows that the Sermon on the Mount offers a clear window into understanding God's work in Christ. Jonathan Pennington provides a historical, theological, and literary commentary on the Sermon and explains how this text offers insight into God's plan for human flourishing. As Pennington explores the literary dimensions and theological themes of this famous passage, he situates the Sermon in dialogue with the Jewish and Greek virtue traditions and the philosophical-theological question of human flourishing. He also relates the Sermon's theological themes to contemporary issues such as ethics, philosophy, and economics.

Learning a new art requires a knowledge of the fundamentals, and the art of preaching is no exception. In Essentials for Biblical Preaching veteran homiletician Al Fasol covers every aspect the aspiring preacher needs to know. “This volume introduces the preacher to the whole field of biblical preaching,” writes the author. “It takes the novitiate pulpiteer through an understanding of the nature of the preacher, to a grasp of the proclamation task, and on into the mystery of basic sermon preparation.” It can be used effectively on either the graduate or the undergraduate level. After surveying the history of preaching, Fasol offers practical guidelines, peppered with examples, for preparing and delivering effective sermons. Topics include collecting sermon ideas, interpreting the biblical text, organizing the sermon, using illustrations, making applications, varying sermon methods, and employing communication principles.