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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.
The vast homiletic corpus of John Chrysostom has received renewed attention in recent years as a source for the wider cultural and historical context within which his sermons were preached. Scholars have demonstrated the exciting potential his sermons have to shed light on aspects of daily life, popular attitudes, and practices of lay piety. In short, Chrysostom's sermons have been recognised as a valuable source for the study of 'popular Christianity' at the end of the fourth century. This study, however, questions the validity of some recent conclusions. James Daniel Cook illustrates that Chrysostom is often seen as at odds with the congregations to whom he preached. On this view, the Christianity of élites such as Chrysostom had made little inroads into popular thought beyond the fairly superficial, and congregations were still living with older, more culturally traditional views about religious beliefs which preachers were doing their utmost to overcome. Cook argues that such a portrayal is based on a misreading of Chrysostom's sermons and fails to explain satisfactorily the apparent popularity that Chrysostom enjoyed as a preacher. Preaching and Popular Christianity: Reading the Sermons of John Chrysostom reassesses how we read Chrysostom's sermons, with a particular focus on the stern language which permeated his preaching, and on which the image of the contrary congregation is largely based. In doing this, Cook recovers a neglected portrayal of Chrysostom as a pastor and of preaching as a pastoral and liturgical activity, and it becomes clear that his use of critical language says more about how he understood his role as preacher than about the nature of popular Christianity in late-antique society. Thus, a very different picture of late-antique Christianity emerges, in which Chrysostom's congregations are more willing to listen and learn from their preacher than is often assumed.
Many of us have big questions about God that the Christian faith seems to leave unanswered. But what if that tension is exactly where faith comes alive? Paradoxology boldly claims that the paradoxes that seem to undermine belief are actually the heart of our vibrant faith, and it is only by continually wrestling with them that God is most clearly revealed.
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.
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. 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. Volume 2 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. Volume 1, available separately as 9781501833779, 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. "...'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
Jesus was the descendant of sexually exploited women, narrowly survived a child homicide, and grew up to be the world's most prominent defender of children. Jesus reserved his harshest words for those who abused or neglected children and went so far as to say our treatment of children says everything about our view of God. Although the early church took this message to heart and distinguished itself by its treatment of children, this message has been distorted or ignored by many modern Christian leaders. As a result, the church has often failed to protect children from abuse and, in many instances, has contributed to their maltreatment. In this insightful book, Christian theologian and internationally recognized child abuse expert Victor Vieth examines the role of Jesus' life and teachings in reducing child abuse in the New Testament world. Vieth urges Christians to once again take seriously everything Jesus had to say about children. Using the teachings of Jesus as a blueprint, Vieth sets forth a proposal for church reform to prevent many cases of abuse, improve the pastoral care of survivors of abuse, and witness to the world that Christian faith shows itself in service to children.
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.
Learn from the early church's greatest preacher. John of Antioch, later called "chrysostomos" ("golden mouth"), preached over 600 extant sermons. He was one of the most prolific authors in the early Church, surpassed only by Augustine of Hippo. His example and work has inspired countless Christians through the ages. In Preaching the Word with Chrysostom, through a combination of storytelling and theology, Gerald Bray reflects upon 1,500 year-old pastoral wisdom from one of church history's most prolific Christ-centered preachers. Chrysostom's eloquent preaching and influence on Christian teaching left a legacy that is still recognized today. The Lived Theology series explores aspects of Christian doctrine through the eyes of the men and women who practiced it. Interweaving the contributions of notable individuals alongside their overshadowed contemporaries, we gain a much deeper understanding and appreciation of their work and the broad tapestry of Christian history. These books illuminate the vital contributions made by these figures throughout the history of the church.
St Irenaeus is the most important theologian of the second century, laying the foundation for all future Christian thinkers. Irenaeus tells us that he had known Polycarp, who had himself known the apostles and been appointed by them as the bishop of the church of Smyrna. This direct contact with the immediate successors of the apostles was of importance for Irenaeus in his later defense of Christian practice and teaching. In this work Against the Heresies, he was the first to utilize the full range of apostolic writings in his controversy with the Gnostics and others. Uniting, for the first time, the whole history of God's activity in one all-encompassing divine economy, Irenaeus demonstrates that there is but one God, who has made Himself known through His one Son, Jesus Christ, by the one Holy Spirit, to the one human race, bringing His creatures made from mud into the intimacy of communion with Himself.
“God has appointed preaching in worship as one great means of accomplishing his ultimate goal in the world.” —John Piper John Piper makes a compelling claim in these pages about the purpose of preaching: it is intended not merely as an explanation of the text but also as a means of awakening worship by being worship in and of itself. Christian preaching is a God-appointed miracle aiming to awaken the supernatural seeing, savoring, and showing of the glory of Christ. Distilling over forty years of experience in preaching and teaching, Piper shows preachers how and what to communicate from God’s Word, so that God’s purpose on earth will advance through Biblesaturated, Christ-exalting, God-centered preaching—in other words, expository exultation.