This book provides a theology for social crisis preaching by arguing that Christian proclamation is the best prescription for the social crises in our world. Social Crisis Preaching positions the pastor as a sacred anthropologist, one who is aware of both the crises in one’s community, but also as one who has a firm understanding of the people in the pews. It also equips the preacher with both the hermeneutical and homiletical tools to confront social crisis with biblical integrity. Lastly, this book argues that social crisis preaching develops Christians disciples and congregations, as those who care about and confront the social crisis in their neighbor’s community, following the biblical mandate to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice equips preachers to craft sermons that help congregations talk about topics of public concern based on strong ethical, biblical, and theological foundations as well as prudent sermonic strategies. Informed by years of research with clergy and congregations, Leah D. Schade provides practical and pastoral guidance for preachers to find their prophetic voice for their context with integrity and wisdom. Preaching and Social Issues offers an assessment tool for gauging risk and capacity for preaching about social issues and suggests three approaches—Gentle, Invitational, and Robust. This book includes case studies and sermons that illustrate different approaches for preaching about contemporary topics.

The art of preaching is one of the most important acts of ministry. The sermon serves as a transformative force—imparting knowledge, challenging beliefs, and convicting hearts. Recognizing the importance of this sacred task, Handbook of Contemporary Preaching, 2nd Edition equips pastors with invaluable tools and insights, enabling them to prepare and deliver sermons that resonate deeply with their congregations. In a single volume, editor Michael Duduit compiles the insight, methods, and experience of over fifty celebrated preachers, including R. Albert Mohler, Hershael York, Robert Smith Jr., Bryan Chappell, Jim Shaddix, Tony Merida, Ed Stetzer, and many others. This handbook covers every aspect of contemporary preaching: The roots of contemporary preaching ​Contemporary preaching methods, including expository, topical, doctrinal, narrative, and alternative preaching models Sermon preparation and presentation Preaching and the biblical text Preaching as a part of ministry Preaching to the needs of people in contemporary contexts With its expansive bibliography and topical format, Handbook of Contemporary Preaching, 2nd Edition is designed to be a timeless resource in every pastor’s library. In this book, pastors, teachers, and seminarians will find invaluable insight and comprehensive guidance for the art of preaching. Contributors: R. Albert Mohler, Nathan Finn, Chuck Fuller, Tyshawn Gardner, Scott Gibson, Chris Rappazini, Robert Smith, Jr., Calvin Miller, Bryan Chapell, Frank Pollard, David S. Dockery, Scott Pace, Hershael York, Lloyd John Ogilvie, Stuart Briscoe, Jeffery Campbell, Ralph Douglas West, Eric Johnson, David Allen, Simon Vibert, Stephen Rummage, Daniel Block, Ken Mathews, Paul House, C. Hassell Bullock, Heath Thomas, Robert Sloan, Sidney Greidanus, Channing Crisler, Scott Hafemann, Richaed Melick, Al Fasol, Jim Shaddix, Don Sunukijian, Michael Quicke, Tony Merida, Jesse Nelson, Clayborn Lea, Mike Glenn, Micah Fries, Ed Stetzer, Kris Barnett, Bryan Carter, James Emery White, Tim McKnight, Charlie Dates, Mike Milton, Rick Blackwood, James Noble, Maurice Watson, Vic Anderson, Timothy Mann, Ben Brammer, Clayton King, and Dennis Phelps

Accompanying CD-ROM contains the full text of volume one and two. Volume two contains primary source material on preaching drawn from the entire scope of the church's twenty centuries. Each chapter in volume two is geared to its companion chapter in volume one's narrative history.

A History of Preaching brings together narrative history and primary sources to provide the most comprehensive guide available to the story of the church's ministry of proclamation. Bringing together an impressive array of familiar and lesser-known figures, Edwards paints a detailed, compelling picture of what it has meant to preach the gospel. Pastors, scholars, and students of homiletics will find here many opportunities to enrich their understanding and practice of preaching. Volume 1 contains Edwards's magisterial retelling of the story of Christian preaching's development from its Hellenistic and Jewish roots in the New Testament, through the late-twentieth century's discontent with outdated forms and emphasis on new modes of preaching such as narrative. Along the way the author introduces us to the complexities and contributions of preachers, both with whom we are already acquainted, and to whom we will be introduced here for the first time. Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Bernard, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Edwards, Rauschenbusch, Barth; all of their distinctive contributions receive careful attention. Yet lesser-known figures and developments also appear, from the ninth-century reform of preaching championed by Hrabanus Maurus, to the reference books developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the mendicant orders to assist their members' preaching, to Howell Harris and Daniel Rowlands, preachers of the eighteenth-century Welsh revival, to Helen Kenyon, speaking as a layperson at the 1950 Yale Beecher lectures about the view of preaching from the pew. Volume 2, available separately as 9781501833786, contains primary source material on preaching drawn from the entire scope of the church's twenty centuries. The author has written an introduction to each selection, placing it in its historical context and pointing to its particular contribution. Each chapter in Volume 2 is geared to its companion chapter in Volume 1's narrative history. Ecumenical in scope, fair-minded in presentation, appreciative of the contributions that all the branches of the church have made to the story of what it means to develop, deliver, and listen to a sermon, A History of Preaching will be the definitive resource for anyone who wishes to preach or to understand preaching's role in living out the gospel. "...'This work is expected to be the standard text on preaching for the next 30 years,' says Ann K. Riggs, who staffs the NCC's Faith and Order Commission. Author Edwards, former professor of preaching at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, is co-moderator of the commission, which studies church-uniting and church-dividing issues. 'A History of Preaching is ecumenical in scope and will be relevant in all our churches; we all participate in this field,' says Riggs...." from EcuLink, Number 65, Winter 2004-2005 published by the National Council of Churches

Pastors are often ill-equipped in preparing churches to be sacred advocates and activists in the communities most affected by social injustice and neglect. Sacred Anthropology aims to inform and equip pastors in discipling the body of Christ to effect social transformation in times of social crisis. Tyshawn Gardner envisions the pastor as a "sacred anthropologist," as one who understands the cultures of other image-bearers for the sake of promoting the justice of God in the world. As a pastoral mandate, the sacred anthropologist challenges churches to be engaged in the political and social transformation of their community. The social anthropologist employs both secular and theological tools for an effective contextualized ministry. This book posits prophetic radicalism as a pastoral theology and the pastoral office as the center of prophetic radicalism, yet it does not limit prophetic radicalism to the pastoral office. Sacred Anthropology is written with pastors and parishioners from any ethnic group in mind but draws heavily on the prophetic pastoral and preaching tradition of African American pastors and churches. Using this foundation and tradition, sacred anthropologists can lead their congregations in a way that challenges them to be involved, engaged, and transformative.

In this book, Jeremy Kim criticizes current Korean and Asian American homiletical strategies for their lack of a theological point of view on social suffering. He argues that preachers must develop an alternative theological-homiletical viewpoint on social suffering, one that has pastoral and prophetic approaches. These two approaches offer people a refuge and a voice, not only in the church community but also in the larger social community. Thus, the author suggests that preachers adopt the biblical lament, highlighting its dual tasks of compassion (the pastoral dimension) and resistance (the prophetic dimension). The author, who is a non-Western Asian American preacher, also incorporates East Asian philosophical and hermeneutical research on ren, a positive element of Confucianism, into his argument. He applies this core concept of Confucianism to the preacher's homiletical strategy toward social suffering. Thus, the author proposes that Korean preachers should recover ren, which contains sincere compassion for others as well as a voice of resistance that reveals unjust social structures as the cause of social suffering and expresses both within Uri (we), the community.

Where have all the prophets gone? And why do preachers seem to shy away from prophetic witness? Astute preacher Leonora Tisdale considers these vexing questions while providing guidance and encouragement to pastors who want to recommit themselves to the task of prophetic witness. With a keen sensitivity to pastoral contexts, Tisdale's work is full of helpful suggestions and examples to help pastors structure and preach prophetic sermons, considered by many to be one of the most difficult tasks pastors are called to undertake.