Showing that good sermons are really local theology and folk art, Princeton's Leonora Tubbs Tisdaye tells how to analyze a congregation to fit a sermon to the audience. The book then gives practical help for preparing and delivering sermons that are meaningful and appropriate. Tisdale draws from contextual theology and congregational studies.
Both experienced and novice preachers need a new approach for sermon development skill-building. A Sermon Workbook offers a unique and flexible resource that is instantly accessible and useful for anyone tasked with the proclamation of the Word. The workbook format can be used in a linear fashion, beginning to end. Or readers can pick and choose the chapters to tailor-fit their own needs. In either case, readers build skill upon skill, working through inventive and engaging exercises first developed and taught at Yale Divinity School. The book addresses the skills and arts that are essential for effective preaching in our multi-tasking, multi-ethnic, sound-bite society. It offers theological clarity about why we preach, and what matters most. The creative, collaborative, and charming authors present the principles as they do in their classroom: in two voices—one male and one female--with the two complementing and supporting one another.
Women preachers are everywhere. The pulpit, once a bastion of male presence and power, has become, in many denominations, a place where women regularly exercise their gifts, leading congregations and proclaiming God's word each week. The number of women scholars who are publishing and teaching in the field of preaching has also expanded dramatically. Leonora Tubbs Tisdale explores how the presence of women preachers and scholars of preaching has transformed the practice of homiletics this country—from the reclamation of women’s “herstory” in preaching, to the topics addressed in preaching and scholarship, to the way in which Biblical hermeneutics and theologizing are undertaken in preaching, to the imagery, illustrations, shape and embodiment of the sermons themselves. How Women Transform Preaching begins with a fascinating survey, including statistical information and historical analysis. Interviewing 16 women preachers/homileticians, Tisdale shares ‘untold stories’ of women preachers throughout history who are largely unknown but who serve as examples of both the struggle and power of women’s preaching. She then tells the stories of contemporary women preachers. Throughout, Tisdale draws practical lessons for the reader, showing what students, homileticians, and preachers can learn from extraordinary women preachers.
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.
Preaching Justice brings together eight very diverse voices from eight distinct cultural/ethnic communities, challenging them to articulate the specific justice concerns, issues, and passions that give rise to a preaching ministry within the their own community and beyond. Theological analyses are offered by theses persons representing their particular communities: Kathy Black - persons with disabilities Martin Brokenieg - Native Americans Teresa Fry Brown - African Americans Eleazar Fernandez - Filipino Americans Justo Gonzalez - Hispanics Eunjoo Mary Kim - Korean Americans Stacy Offner - Jews Christine Marie Smith - lesbians and gays This volume offers a rare vision of what transforms preaching might sound and look like, and urges that all preaching - whatever community it comes from, whatever community it hopes to reach - be grounded in the sacred acts of listening and knowing.
Preachings most able practitioners gather in this book to explore and explain the idea that preaching is a practice that can be taught and learned. Arguing that preaching is a living practice with a long tradition, an identifiable shape, and a broad set of norms and desired outcomes, these noted scholars propose that teachers initiate students into the larger practice of preaching, in ways somewhat like other students are initiated into the practice of medicine or law. The book concludes with designs for a basic preaching course and addresses the question of how preaching courses fit into the larger patterns of seminary curricula.
Historic changes are occurring in the convergence of worship styles throughout the Christian church. Christians across the theological spectrum are seeking to learn from their own tradition's roots and from the liturgical expressions of believers in other times and places. Here worship expert Clayton Schmit examines worship in church settings around the globe and provides a practical manual for shaping liturgies that are informed by and relevant to contemporary missional contexts. The book broadens current ecumenical worship conversations, reveals insights drawn from the church at worship in the world, and argues for a common understanding of a theology of worship.
Preaching to the "choir" is always complicated, but especially so when that choir happens to be a seminary community. In this collection of sermons, delivered in the chapel of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (PCUSA), Robert P. Hoch, Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Worship, weaves together life experiences, careful readings of the Scripture, and pastoral wisdom for the benefit of seminarians, pastors, and educators. Often poetic, Dr. Hoch's sermons are crafted so that they speak not only to the peculiar life of a seminary community, but more broadly to the larger life of the church. Beyond the sermons themselves, readers will hear Dr. Hoch's reflections on individual sermons, reflections that sometimes betray the sermon behind the sermon. Whether as a student, seasoned pastor, or officer in the church, readers will find in these pages a partner with whom they can share the journey of faith.
This in-depth study on preaching to second generation Korean Americans, the first of its kind, is based on empirical and ethnographic fieldwork. Matthew D. Kim conducted surveys and semi-structured qualitative interviews with Korean American pastors and second generation young adult respondents in three geographic regions of the United States: the Midwest, the West Coast, and the East Coast. His primary conceptual framework employs social psychologists Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius' theory of possible selves to facilitate the process of congregational exegesis in the second generation Korean American church context. This book offers a new contextual homiletic model that enables Korean American preachers to engage in deeper levels of ethnic and cultural analysis in their sermonic preparation. Simultaneously, the author reconstructs conventional preaching roles of Korean American preachers and second generation listeners so that they may co-creatively imagine new possible selves that radically advance Christian mission and practice in the world. This book will serve as a primary or secondary source for upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate courses on preaching, communication studies, ethnic and racial studies, cross-cultural ministry, or social psychology.
Considering the lack of resources that exists in the study of women's preaching, Kim makes a very significant contribution to the development of homiletics, as it joins together the history of women preachers with theological reflection from other women preachers as well as herself. It is the author's hope that this book will provide a broader and deeper basis for the theology of preaching as well as practical ways in which preachers can improve their own preaching by looking at a woman's perspective. "Kim's ground-breaking book is the first comprehensive narrative of women preachers from the Second Testament to the Second Millennium. Through Kim's eyes, we see women as a constant and forceful (if often subversive) presence in Christian preaching. After focusing on the medieval period, the Reformation, and the early twentieth century, the author brings her autobiography close to the surface as she leads us to consider women and the politics of God in the colonial and post-colonial eras, with a special focus on Asia. The book climaxes with a call to envision preaching as partnership with God that facilitates partnership in the church and world in the service of liberation."---Ronald J. Allen Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Th. Miller Professor of Professor of Preaching and New Testament, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana "Kim's exciting exploration of the history of women preachers illuminates the remarkable perseverance of God and the women who partner with God to bring words of peace and transformation to the world. Those churches that continue to deny women's preaching do more than simply perpetuate an inequality. They also quench the Spirit who years to transform us co-workers in the liberative work of God."---Cliff Guthrie Associate Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Studies, Bangor Theological Seminary, Bangor, Maine
