The Power Of Multisensory Preaching And Teaching

Most preaching and teaching in the church engages only one of the senses—hearing. In The Power of Multisensory Preaching and Teaching, Rick Blackwood shows how recognizing and engaging the multiple senses of the congregation can lead to greater impact. Blackwood presents both biblical evidence and scientific research showing that the more senses we stimulate in teaching and preaching, the greater the levels of learner attention, comprehension, and retention. Blackwood addresses both the “why” and the “how” of multisensory communication. Regardless of one’s current skill level, this practical book can help anyone add multi-sensory elements to messages in order to take communication to the next level—more compelling, clear, and memorable. As a result of reading this book readers can be more effective as a communicator and teacher. The book includes tools, examples, and worksheets.

This practical guide shows the power of multisensory communication as contrasted with monosensory speaking. Using multiple senses is shown by research to increase learner attention, comprehension, and retention. Any preacher or teacher can incorporate more sense appeal resulting in more compelling, clear, and memorable messages with greater impact.

One Year to Better Preaching provides preachers with fifty-two hands-on exercises that sharpen their homiletical skills. The book is designed particularly for those who preach each week—and have been, perhaps, for some time—to help them get out of the rut of the routine and infuse their preaching with new sparks of creativity, fresh approaches to sermon preparation and design, and sharpened verbal and nonverbal communication skills. Novice preachers, also, will find the exercises useful in developing their preaching abilities. Each chapter includes instructions for an exercise, tools and suggestions needed for the exercise, comments from preachers who completed it, and recommended resources for further study The exercises address eight categories of homiletics: • Prayer and Preaching • Bible Interpretation • Understanding Listeners • Sermon Construction • Illustrations and Applications • Word Crafting • The Preaching Event • Sermon Evaluation Readers can complete the exercises in the order presented, which address different categories week to week, or they can sharpen their skills in a particular category over a period of weeks by using the chart provided. They might also work through the exercises in collaboration with other preachers. One Year to Better Preaching will leave a preacher reinvigorated and better equipped to proclaim the Word of God skillfully, passionately, and effectively.

In terms of practical-theology’s critical reflection on marginalized people’s wounds in a wider society, this book investigates the question, “How to proclaim the good news in response to first-generation Korean immigrants’ contextual suffering in the United Sates?” To answer the question, the book starts with investigating Korean immigrant hearers’ contextual predicaments in a new land to point out emerging practical-theological issues in relation to the practice of preaching. In this book, the primary subjects are first-generation Korean immigrants, especially those who have relatively low socio-economic status and struggle with the purpose of their lives as immigrants, particularly those whose material dreams have been shattered. In order to proclaim the good news, this book proposes a more appropriate immigrant theology for/in the practice of preaching by reclaiming the priorities of God’s future in our lives and confirming God’s active identification with Korean immigrant congregations in the depths of their predicament. Such reconstructive work for immigrant theology arises in response to their existential hardships, marginality, ethnic discrimination, and relative powerlessness in life. While acknowledging both the possibilities and limits of the diverse forms of current Korean immigrant preaching, the book then offers a strategic proposal for a new homiletic theory, namely “a psalmic-theological homiletic.” This proposed homiletic is deeply rooted in the theology of the Psalms and their rhetorical movement. This re-envisioned mode of eschatological and prophetic preaching in times of difficulty recovers ancient Israel’s psalmic, rhetorical tradition that aims toward faith. Its theological-rhetorical strategy intends to both transform hearers’ habitus of living in faith and enhance their hope-filled life through communal anticipation of God’s coming future on the margins. Specifically, this proposed homiletic critically adopts key features from psalms of lament and their typical, fourfold theological-rhetorical movement (i.e., lament, retelling a story, confessional doxology, and obedient vow) as now core elements of a revised Korean-immigrant preaching practice.

In The Visual Preacher: Proclaiming an Embodied Word, Steve Thomason's winsomely illustrated text shows preachers basic principles and visual techniques to create and use images that will make them even more effective communicators than they already are. Preachers need not be skilled artists or technological wizards to apply Thomason's ideas.

In the homiletics field, a text has been needed that blends hermeneutics, sermon development, and sermon delivery. Engaging Exposition fills that gap with what its experienced authors call a "3-D approach" to preaching. Bill Curtis writes about the Discovery process—how to equip the student to discover the meaning of a biblical text by using sound principles of interpretation, and to move from biblical analysis to biblical interpretation. Danny Akin addresses the Development process—how to equip the student to develop expository sermons based upon results of the interpretive process, and to move from the Main Idea of the Text (MIT) to the completed sermon. Stephen Rummage explains the Delivery process—how to equip students to deliver expository messages using the completed sermon, and to move from an understanding of speech communication principles to persuasive delivery.

"Progress in the Pulpit is a master class in preaching, written by two most-qualified authors. Dr. Jerry Vines is truly a Prince of the Pulpit.” — Dr. Albert Mohler Jr., from the foreword Like musical instruments, preachers get better over time—unless, of course, they neglect maintenance. Progress in the Pulpit is for seasoned preachers looking to refresh their craft and receive guidance for contemporary challenges to preaching. While most preaching books are geared toward new preachers, Progress in the Pulpit builds on the basics and focuses on what often falls into neglect. You will learn to better: Connect to audiences without compromising biblical truth Plan, evaluate, and get feedback on sermons Battle biblical illiteracy in your congregation Employ word studies and other technical aspects of biblical interpretation Increase imagination and creativity in sermon writing Extend the life of a sermon via social media, small groups, and more Establish habits for continued growth Drs. Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix, who wrote Power in the Pulpit (a book still used in seminaries today), remain committed to pure expository preaching. Yet they understand that the times change and present new challenges. Here they offer guidance to help preachers stay sharp and grow in the craft of faithfully proclaiming God’s Word.

In our highly sensory and interactive age, how might drawing upon various arts--music, film, architecture, dramatic performance, painting, fashion, and more--expand the aesthetic experience and mode of preaching? This book presents a critical, practical answer to the question. As our society becomes more visually oriented, art-seeking, and body-positive, the practice of preaching is likewise challenged to demonstrate the mind-body, word-visual, and artistic proclamation of the Sacred (after all, isn't the writing of the Bible itself highly art-full and aesthetic?). In this book, Sunggu A. Yang, a seasoned preacher and experienced teacher of preaching, encourages preachers to utilize their unique artistic talents as critical sources of theological and homiletical imagination and as hermeneutical-perspectival tools to aid their rigorous exegetical process of interpreting Scripture, eventually toward artistic-holistic sermon composition and delivery. A sample syllabus, included in the appendix, will greatly assist any preaching instructor who wants to offer a creative course on arts and preaching.