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Lisa Cressman, founder of Backstory Preaching, offers preachers tools to craft difficult sermon messages that can be heard. The gospel changes lives, but to do that it must first be heard. For it to be heard, people have to trust they are seen and their concerns and fears are acknowledged. They have to feel their perspectives are real, valid, and respected. Preachers have a difficult message to preach, a message many will not want to hear: new life always emerges from death. Cressman shows preachers how to craft sermons with the right tone and how to have the courage to say what you're called to say.Part 1 of the book provides the preparatory work needed before crafting those difficult sermon messages. Here the focus is on how preachers prepare themselves, build relationships of mutual trust with listeners, and understand and appropriately use authority and leadership to proclaim the gospel.Part 2 focuses on the sermon itself with suggestions on what to say and how to say it. The preacher will find new tools and sharpen existing ones to preach difficult messages with empathy, compassion, and skill.

Preeminent biblical scholar and preacher Walter Brueggemann says the book of Jeremiah is not a sermon, but it does sound the cadences of the tradition of Deuteronomy that serve as sermons--that is, as expositions based on remembered and treasured tradition. In this volume, Brueggemann conducts an experiment in homiletics. He wants us to wrestle with the question, What if we allow the canonical shape of the book of Jeremiah to instruct us concerning the shape and trajectory of the sermon? More specifically, he wonders: What if the book of Jeremiah is treated as a long sermonic reflection about the traumatic events that led to exile and displacement for the people of Judah? Why did it happen? Is God faithful? Does God punish? Is there any future? This theme and these questions can also be related to the crucifixion of Jesus and the displacement experienced by his followers. Brueggemann extends his wonderment further to the displacement experienced in modern American culture, as events jolt our notions of exceptionalism and chosenness. All of those same propensities were at work in ancient Israel in the wake of the displacement of Jerusalem, a wake given voice in the book of Jeremiah. Brueggemann analyzes the various parts of the sermon through the organization of the book of Jeremiah, looking at Introduction, Body, and Conclusion, comparing them to Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Resurrection Sunday. The task of the preacher mirrors the task of the prophet who seeks to pluck and tear down, as well as to plant and to build. The preacher cannot, as he says, participate in a cover-up. The preaching task requires honesty about what God requires and a clear proclamation of what God has done and will yet do.

This volume is part of the new Working Preacher Books series designed to provide timely and compelling books on biblical preaching. God uses good preaching to change lives.

William H. Willimon makes the case that two key pastoral tasks--preaching and leadership--complement, correct, strengthen, and inform one another. He shows how the practices, skills, and intentions of Christian preaching can strengthen congregational leadership and that leadership is an appropriate expectation for Christian preaching.--back cover.

"The proclamation of the gospel is not a solo endeavor. It is a communal practice, the responsitiblity of the baptized rather than the privilege of the ordained. In The peoples' sermon, Shauna K. Hannan argues that it is no longer faithful for a preacher to craft a sermon in isolation, step into the pulpit (literally or metaphorically) on Sunday morning, offer a monologue, and on Monday start all over, alone, preparing for the following Sunday. Hannan's goal is to create vital worshipping communities where all know and live out their roles in the preaching ministry of the congregation, where both clergy and laity are empowered and equipped in their roles before, during, and after the sermon."--back cover.

Old Testament scholar and interpreter Brent A. Strawn focuses on the importance of honesty in preaching, especially around three challenging Old Testament themes: sin, suffering, and violence. He makes the case that preaching honestly is critical in the church today. Without honesty regarding these topics, there is no way forward to reconciliation, health, and recovery. Further, it is imperative for today's preachers to deal with the questions of faith arising from these themes in the biblical text itself. In addition to key scripture passages, he turns to several contemporary authors and works as dialogue partners on the three themes. Asserting that keeping secrets can lead to a kind of sickness, Strawn uses texts from the Pentateuch and the Psalms to model honesty about sin, without which there can be no reconciliation, and honesty about suffering, without which there can be no healing. He also looks at the book of Joshua and various psalms to model honesty about violence, which can serve as a way to contain, limit, and ultimately transcend violence. Strawn frames these themes specifically for working preachers, so they can create sermons that speak to these thorny themes with depth and clarity.

In Writing for the Ear, Preaching from the Heart, Donna Giver-Johnston teaches preachers how to communicate effectively--how to get away from their notes and make a more personal connection with their listeners. Grounded in a theology of the incarnation, she offers a step-by-step method for writing sermons with the fewest, most impactful and memorable words and delivered by heart to communicate a message that captures the ears and hearts of listeners.

The authors look closely at both the cultural phenomenon of stand-up comedy and theories of humor, asking what preachers can learn from both. Divine Laughter brings the task of preaching into conversation with both the comedic parts of the Bible and the theological parts of the comedic in order to bring a new kind of life to preaching.

The headlines are where daily life meets the public square--be it through social-media feeds, news outlets, or daily chatter. Preachers often feel stuck when met with quickly shifting and dense media topics. If and when preachers determine it is appropriate to address issues that arise in the news cycle, they are often at a loss for how to speak about these issues from the pulpit. When preachers understand that a responsibility to sustain life is embedded in the purposes of preaching, they discover greater fluidity between the everyday world, the biblical text, and preaching itself. Preaching the Headlines engages the intersections of social and religious discourse for the purpose of helping communities attend to everyday issues as matters of faith and faith as a practical, everyday aspect of life.This book reframes preaching as an ongoing conversation between the modern world and the world of the text, exploring where the divides between the two may be less rigid than we acknowledge. In preaching, the preacher uses what they know about life as a bridge to the text, while life in the text provides the bridge back to faith in the contemporary world.

Real People, Real Faith portrays biblical characters as multidimensional human beings who journeyed with God. Cindy Halvorson provides practical tools for creating portraits of real people whose relationship with God is like our own. Being touched by a biblical character's story can help one experience the Divine's love and care for them.

In For Every Matter under Heaven: Preaching on Special Occasions, Beverly Zink-Sawyer and Donna Giver-Johnston offer a process for creating biblically grounded, relevant sermons for events that arise from calendars, celebrations, or circumstances by considering the occasion, the gathered listeners, and the ways God is at work in that season.

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.

My Burden Is Light invites preachers to reclaim proclaiming Jesus as the goal of preaching. Satterlee argues that by preaching Jesus's life, death, and resurrection as good news, we address the issues we face. This book is foundational for preaching courses and a balm for preachers needing nourishment and renewal.

Digital Homiletics demystifies the art of online preaching and helps readers understand both the why and the how of engaging listeners in digital formats. After laying a concise and accessible theological foundation, Yang shares ten methods for effective digital preaching. Readers will find concrete tips and advice for sharing God's word online.

The call to holistic preaching has many dimensions. Are we called to preach the good news of God's grace? Advocate for justice? Is preaching worship? A prophetic act? "Yes," Ackerman answers--to all of the above. Through personal stories, biblical examples, and concrete advice, readers will learn how to join gospel and justice in community.