Preaching With All Ages

The all-age talk is a task guaranteed to give preachers sleepless nights! Very few people feel they have a gift for it, and most lack confidence. This reflective and practical guide addresses these concerns, and aims to build a sure theological understanding, develop skills and grow confidence.

The all-age talk is a task guaranteed to give preachers sleepless nights! Very few people feel they have a gift for it, and most lack confidence. This reflective and practical guide addresses these concerns, and aims to build a sure theological understanding, develop skills and grow confidence. Twelve chapters explore different kinds of engagement - with the senses, with one another, with oneself, with scripture, with liturgy, with the church, with God, with challenging situations, and more – to enable preachers make real connections with their listeners, whatever the age. Each chapter is followed by a practical case study illustrating key principles and providing down-to-earth, tried and tested wisdom for all kinds of contexts and occasions.

A Gospel for All Ages lives at the intersection of two conversations--preaching and intergenerational ministry. By integrating these two topics, an entirely new conversation emerges, one that draws from both, that interrogates both, and that births something new in the process, creating fresh possibilities for a sleepy church. The fields of preaching and intergenerational ministry rarely cross paths because they are championed by two different sorts of ministerial leaders. On the one hand, preaching and homiletics has largely been a field for teaching pastors, senior ministers, and other pastoral practitioners who are tasked with the important work of proclaiming the gospel to congregations of adults every week. On the other hand, the cheerleaders of intergenerational ministry have tended to be ministry leaders who find their primary vocation within the formation of adolescents and children. Increasing numbers of Christian educators and leaders who work in children's and youth ministry are lifting high the banner of intergenerational ministry. Wherever your tent is planted in one camp or the other, this book is for you. If God has called you to the work of preaching, you find within these pages wise words and best practices for improving and expanding your homiletical practice in light of the eight-year-olds and eighty-year-olds who share a pew on Sunday mornings. If your vocation is Christian education or intergenerational ministry, these chapters will spur you toward that final frontier of all-age worship as you consider how your vocation can include the preaching of the gospel to young and old alike. Six creative ministry professionals join author David M. Csinos in providing intergenerational best-practice resources. Each chapter includes discussion questions and exercises for future practice.

Pastor, preacher, and New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller shares his wisdom on communicating the Christian faith from the pulpit as well as from the coffee shop. Most Christians—including pastors—struggle to talk about their faith in a way that applies the power of the Christian gospel to change people’s lives. Timothy Keller is known for his insightful, down-to-earth sermons and talks that help people understand themselves, encounter Jesus, and apply the Bible to their lives. In this accessible guide for pastors and laypeople alike, Keller helps readers learn to present the Christian message of grace in a more engaging, passionate, and compassionate way.

There are many books on the market that address how culture, race, gender, or economic status affect the way preachers preach and congregations hear sermons. This is the first book to address preaching that promotes solidarity across these differences. Preaching needs to be targeted to specific contexts. But how can a preacher handle specific contexts when we live in a globalized world? What does local context mean and who defines it? Kim develops the concept of "trans-contextual preaching" to show how preachers can respect diversity and global connections. She develops a new theology of preaching, examines the modes of biblical interpretation appropriate for trans-contextual preaching, and explores designs for sermons. Sample sermons from the author provide excellent illustrations.

We know of the preacher’s roles as both teacher and proclaimer, but Jeffrey Arthurs adds another assignment: the Lord’s remembrancer. With decades of preaching experience, he explains how to stir the memory of Christ-followers, fanning the flames of faith through vivid language, story, delivery, and ceremony. When knowledge fades and conviction cools, the church needs to be reminded of the great truths of the faith.

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

Preaching to Convert offers an intriguing new perspective on the outreach strategies of U.S. evangelicals, framing them as examples of activist performance, broadly defined as acts performed before an audience in the hopes of changing hearts and minds. Most writing about activist performance has focused on left-progressive causes, events, and actors. Preaching to Convert argues against such a constricted view of activism and for a more nuanced understanding of U.S. evangelicalism as a movement defined by its desire to win converts and spread the gospel. The book positions evangelicals as a diverse, complicated group confronting the loss of conservative Christianity’s default status in 21st-century U.S. culture. In the face of an increasingly secular age, evangelicals have been reassessing models of outreach. In acts like handing out Bible tracts to strangers on the street or going door-to-door with a Bible in hand, in elaborately staged horror-themed morality plays or multimillion-dollar creationist discovery centers, in megachurch services beamed to dozens of satellite campuses, and in controversial “ex-gay” ministries striving to return gays and lesbians to the straight and narrow, evangelicals are redefining what it means to be deeply committed in a pluralist world. The book’s engaging style and careful argumentation make it accessible and appealing to scholars and students across a range of fields.

More and more pulpits are occupied by motivational speakers rather than preachers. Church congregations are not being given a comprehensive, biblical understanding of the faith. Drawing on his own experience as a pastor in Zambia, Conrad Mbewe tackles issues such as the content of pastoral preaching, how pastoral preaching relates to church life, finding the time to prepare pastoral sermons, and dealing with discouragement. Throughout the book, it is clear that the author’s conviction is to see preachers grow strong churches, to build a people for God.

Voicing one theme for the entire Bible and structuring all sermons around that idea may seem to be an impossible challenge. For veteran pastor and preaching professor Edmund Clowney it will not do to preach a text from either the Old or New Testaments without fully preaching its ultimate and primary focus-the person and work of Jesus Christ. He writes, "To see the text in relation to Christ is to see it in its larger context, the context of God's purpose in revelation." Clowney's rationale for emphasizing Christ's presence in the Old Testament rests on the purpose of the Hebrew Scripture. The Old Testament follows God's one great plan for human history and redemption, and the plan is not only from him but centers on him: his presence in his incarnate Son. The witness of the Scriptures to Christ is the reason they were written, so it is appropriate to emphasize this element in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. By offering numerous full-length examples of his own sermons that emphasize Christ as the principle theme of Scripture, Clowney illustrates for those who will never have the privilege of being his students how they can craft sermons which present Christ as the primary consideration of the text. He also offers specific instructions on preparing such a sermon. He discusses the personal habits of prayer and Bible study that prepare pastors to seek out Christ's presence. Clowney emphasizes the importance of including a specific application in every sermon so that Christ is presented both in what he says and does to reveal himself in the biblical text and in what he says and does to direct Christians' lives today. Students preparing for the pastorate, pastors desiring to increase their emphasis on Christ in their sermons, and those seeking Christ's presence in all of Scripture will find a help in Clowney's writings.