Overview

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Student eSources for The Practices of Christian Preaching include video discussions, learning activities, and preaching examples. Professors can access additional materials on the downloads page.

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The Practices of Christian Preaching Video Trailer

Collaborator Biographies

Dr. Jared E. Alcántara (Author)
Dr. Jared Alcántara is Associate Professor of Preaching and holder of the Paul W. Powell Endowed Chair in Preaching. An ordained Baptist minister, he has served as a youth pastor, associate pastor, and teaching pastor in Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, and New Jersey. Prior to Truett, from 2014-2018, he served as an associate professor of homiletics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.

Dr. Alcántara is passionate about equipping students to preach God’s Word in ways that are faithful, effective, clear, creative, and inspiring. His teaching and research interests include global south preaching, cultural and intercultural engagement, and the role of race and ethnicity in preaching, especially in Latino/a and African American contexts. His publications include: Learning from a Legend: What Gardner C. Taylor Can Teach Us About Preaching (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016), Crossover Preaching: Improvisational-Intercultural Homiletics in Conversation with Gardner C. Taylor (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015), “The Last Pulpit Prince: Gardner C. Taylor” Preaching (July-August 2014), “Past Masters: Sandy Frederick Ray” Preaching (March-April 2014), “Counting the Costs of Perpetual Connection” Media Development 42, no. 2 (April 2012), and “Perpetually Connected?: The Effects and Implications of Ambient Technology on Christian Worshippers” Africanus Journal 3, no. 1 (Aprial 2011): 5-14. Dr. Alcántara has also reviewed books for journals such as Teaching Technology and Religion, Koinonia, Trinity Journal, and The Journal for the Evangelical Homiletics Society.

Dr. Alcántara plays piano, enjoys disc golf, and is a rabid Philadelphia Eagles fan. He lives in the Waco area with his wife, Jennifer, and their three daughters.

Dr. Ahmi Lee
Ahmi Lee is Assistant Professor of Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary.

As a “third culture kid” born in South Korea, raised in Japan, and educated in an American international school in Japan, Lee’s unique background and experience enrich her understanding and passion for preaching in the global church context. Her book Preaching God’s Grand Drama (Baker Academic) offers a fresh approach to preaching that helps listeners see themselves as actors in God’s ongoing grand drama. Her research interests include preaching as a theological practice of the church, biblical hermeneutics, missions, and the formation of preacher. Lee has contributed to various journals such as Trinity Journal, Restoration Quarterly, and Word and World.

Prior to coming to Fuller, Lee served in both monoethnic and multiethnic congregations in the Chicago area in the capacities of teaching pastor, college/young adults pastor, and children’s program director. Her many years of pastoral experience also includes teaching, directing, and speaking at churches, parachurch organizations, and conferences in diverse countries and contexts. Today she remains an active preacher and speaker worldwide.

Dr. Kenyatta R. Gilbert
The Reverend Dr. Kenyatta R. Gilbert is Professor of Homiletics at the Howard University School of Divinity. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from Baylor University and both his M.Div. and Ph.D. in Practical Theology (Homiletics) from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Dr. Gilbert specializes in the history, theory, and practice of African American preaching. His research focuses on the theology and rhetoric of prophetic preaching, African American religion, hermeneutical theory, and constructive practical theology. He is author of The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching (Fortress Press), A Pursued Justice: Black Preaching from the Great Migration to Civil Rights (Baylor Press), Exodus Preaching: Crafting Sermons about Justice and Hope (Abingdon Press), and is a contributing columnist to Sojournors Magazine.

Dr. Gilbert is the recipient of Louisville Institute’s First Book Grant for Minority Scholars and Howard University’s Emerging Scholar Award and Andrew Mellon Fellowship. He has served as faculty collaborator for HUSD’s Equipping the Saints: Promising Practices in Black Congregational Life, a national study funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Dr. Gilbert is an ordained Baptist minister and founder of The Preaching Project: Restoring Communities through Spoken Word (www.thepreachingproject.org), a website ministry promoting the nurture of the preaching life of ministers serving African American churches and communities. Prior to joining the Divinity School’s faculty in 2006, he served congregations in Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Kenya. Currently, he serves a congregation in Silver Spring, Maryland as an associate minister and practical theologian in residence.

Dr. Jerusha Matsen Neal
Professor Neal’s scholarly work examines the action of the Spirit on the performative borders of body and culture. Her research interests focus on postcolonial preaching, preaching and gender, and the implications of Mariology for a Spirit-dependent homiletic.

Neal is an ordained American Baptist minister with broad ecumenical experience, most recently serving as a Global Ministries missionary to the Fiji Islands through the United Methodist Church. During her years in Fiji, she served as dean of studies at Davuilevu Theological College, the oldest theological seminary in that nation. Professor Neal’s teaching at Davuilevu integrated embodied exegetical approaches to biblical texts with an Oceanic emphasis on holistic education. Her reflections on biblical reception in the Fijian context are forthcoming in Bible in Folklore Worldwide (2017) and the International Journal of Homiletics. A former actress and playwright, she has also authored a collection of dramatic monologues, Blessed: Monologues for Mary (Cascade Books).

Neal has spent her ministry preaching in cross-cultural spaces and bridging denominational communities. God’s work in these in-between locations has convinced her that preaching matters now more than ever. Her forthcoming book, The Overshadowed Preacher (Wm. B. Eerdmans), asks the sticky question of what we mean when we say preaching is “anointed.” It challenges preachers to leave behind false shadows and be overshadowed by the Spirit of God.

Serving as keynote preacher for such events as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, the Young Preacher’s Festival and the Homegrown North Carolina Women’s Preaching Festival, Neal is committed to encouraging the voices of young preachers—and particularly the voices of women—in the risky proclamation of gospel hope.

Dr. Matthew D. Kim
Before joining the faculty at Gordon Conwell in 2012, Dr. Kim brought over 10 years of preaching and teaching experience to his role at Gordon-Conwell. Most recently, he served as senior pastor of Logos Central Chapel in Denver, Colorado.

He is the author of several books, including Preaching with Cultural Intelligence: Understanding the People Who Hear Our Sermons (Baker Academic), which was named the 2018 Preaching Magazine Book of the Year. His other books include, A Little Book for New Preachers: Why and How to Study Homiletics (IVP Academic), Finding Our Voice: A Vision for Asian North American Preaching (Lexham), Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four Views on Preaching Today (coeditor, Baker Academic), The Big Idea Companion to Preaching and Teaching (coeditor, Baker Academic, forthcoming), and Preaching to People in Pain: Sharing Our Suffering in Sermons (Baker Academic). His scholarly interests include hermeneutics, homiletics, pastoral ministry, racial reconciliation, pain and suffering, cultural exegesis, and the Asian American church.

He is a past president of the Evangelical Homiletics Society and serves on the editorial board of The Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society. Dr. Kim is a featured preacher and contributor on PreachingToday.com and facilitates the Preacher’s Book Club through the Center for Preaching. He has been invited to give lectureships on preaching at Moody Bible Institute, Tyndale University College & Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He speaks regularly at churches, conferences, and retreats.

Dr. Kim and his wife, Sarah, have three children.

Chapter 1: Preach Christian Sermons

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 1 Collaborator Discussion

Student Discussion Questions

• In this chapter, we defined the gospel as “an announcement and a call from God through Jesus Christ that welcomes us into covenantal relationship.” Spend time interacting with this (imperfect) definition. What resonates with you? What does not sit well with you? How would you define the gospel? How does this definition challenge your understanding?
• We used five descriptors as a way to offer nuance and texture to the definition of the gospel provided in this chapter. The gospel is transformative, offensive, hopeful, prophetic, and eschatological. In your experience, which of these five descriptors do preachers leave out of their preaching? Also, which of these five do you think you emphasize when you preach and which of these do you neglect?
• Listen to the audio clip below of Bill Jones describing the kind of gospel that he is called to preach, and offer your reaction. What tensions does Jones navigate? What priorities does he emphasize in gospel proclamation?
• In this chapter, we highlighted five pseudo-gospels: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism; the gospel dressed in a flag or banner; prosperity; discipleship without grace; and, grace without discipleship. First, reflect on your own experiences of listening to preaching. Which of these five pseudo-gospels have you heard in the past (or recently), and how do you interpret these experiences? Second, consider your proclivities as a preacher. Which of these five pseudo-gospels are you most susceptible to and why?
• Bryan Chapell mentions three types of “Be” messages: Be Like, Be Good, and Be Disciplined. Which type of message do you gravitate to in your preaching? Why? If you think that you do not gravitate to any of them, reflect on why that is the case.
• Watch the Bishop Vashti McKenzie sermon clip below. In this sermon, Bishop Vashti McKenzie challenges preachers to preach a gospel to the “powers that be” that provokes the following response: “They won’t like it [the truth of the message], and they won’t like you.”.
• Understanding our union with Christ requires striking a balance between the indicative and the imperative. Which one of these extremes do you tend toward in your preaching?
• Would you say that your sermons have a redemptive focus? If so, what does that focus sound like? If not, why not?
• Pastors Gabriel and Janette Salguero preached the sermon below in Orlando, Florida, shortly after a deadly nightclub shooting that killed 49 people and injured 53 others. How does the gospel offer a word of consolation to those who are hurting and a word of hope to those who might be tempted to abandon it?
• My fourth proposal was “Help people remember what they have forgotten.” In your judgment, what have people forgotten that they need to remember?
• Watch the John Ortberg sermon clip below. One of the five descriptors we used in this chapter was that “the gospel is hopeful.” In what ways does Ortberg ground this sermon excerpt in a Christian vision of hope?

Individual Reflection

• Where do I locate myself in my attentiveness to contextualization as a preacher? What do these insights reveal to me?
• If I were to solicit feedback, what would others tell me (or what have they already told me) about my attentiveness to contextualization?
• What would it look like for me to take greater risks (i.e., stretch myself) in the process of contextualization in order to grow?
• Name two to three attainable goals that will help you grow in your capacity to preach contextually. In addition to writing down your goals, explain why you chose these goals.

Chapter 2: Preach Convictionally

Chapter 2 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - Collaborator Discussion

Student Discussion Questions

• What do you believe preaching is? What do you believe preaching does?
• In this chapter, we discussed six temptations that preachers are called to resist: workaholism, celebrity, vanity, arrogance, inauthenticity, and prayerlessness. Which ones are most difficult for you? Why?
• Listen to the Sandra Van Opstal sermon clip below. Why do you think it is so easy for preachers to “serve the food” without stopping to eat it or enjoy it?
• We emphasized three dialectics (six practices total) in this chapter: aloneness and community, activity and receptivity, and prayer and study. Which ones of these practices come naturally to you? Which are challenging for you? What would have to happen for you to pursue these practices more deliberately?
• Watch the Ken Shigematsu sermon clip below. Describe how you interact with the call to keep the Sabbath. What do you believe about the Sabbath theologically? How do you embody what you believe practically? Where do you see strengths in your practice? Where do you see room for growth?
• In the section Faithfulness Matters More to God than Success, you read: “Leave the outcomes up to God.” What factors prevent you from entrusting the outcomes of your ministry to God? If you believed this and lived by it, what would change?
• Listen to the Conrad Mbewe sermon clip in the player below. Mbewe describes the importance of “fervency” in Christian living. What connections do you see between fervency and preaching convictionally?
• What do you believe about the Holy Spirit and preaching? What does it look like to depend on the Spirit as you prepare to preach and when you preach?
• Watch the Tara Beth Leach sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, Leach exhorts listeners to partner in God’s mission through adopting a God-honoring posture toward those who rejected Jesus and those who are rejected by society. What connections do you see between preaching convictionally and turning toward the outsider?
• In his book The Trouble with the Church, Helmut Thielicke describes a crisis of credibility among many preachers along with the perceived gap between preachers and their preaching personas. Thielicke writes:
• For some people, prayer comes quite naturally, and for others it is quite challenging. We all have room to grow. Describe your habits of prayer. How might you better integrate prayer into the preparation and delivery of the sermon?
• Listen to the Rev. Dr. Gardner C. Taylor sermon clip below. In the closing to this sermon, Rev. Dr. Taylor urges listener to “press on” no matter what they are facing. “Today the battle shout. Tomorrow the victor’s song.” What hinders you from pressing on in your calling to Christian ministry? What compels you forward to press on in your journey and your calling?

1. Helmut Thielike, The Trouble with the Church (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 5.

Individual Reflection

• Where do I locate myself in my conviction as a preacher and my convictions concerning preaching (i.e., what it is and does)? What do these insights reveal to me?
• If I were to solicit feedback, what would others tell me (or what have they already told me) about my sense of call and my conviction as a preacher?
• What would it look like for me to take greater risks (i.e., stretch yourself) in order to preach convictionally so that I can grow in this area?
• Name two to three attainable goals that will help you grow in your capacity to preach convictionally. In addition to writing down your goals, explain why you chose these goals.

Chapter 3: Preach Contextually

Chapter 3 - Introduction

Chapter 3 - Collaborator Discussion

Student Discussion Questions

• If you went around soliciting feedback from those who listen to your sermons, what do you think they would tell you about your strengths and weaknesses as a preacher?
• Look back at the seven cultural values discussed earlier in the chapter: individualism –collectivism, lower power distance – high power distance, low uncertainty avoidance – high uncertainty avoidance, cooperative – competitive, short term time – long term time, low context – high context, and being – doing. Locate yourself. How do you think these values shape you as a person? How do they shape you as a pastor? How do they shape your preaching?
• Listen to the Jacqueline E. Lapsley sermon clip below. Jacqueline E. Lapsley preached this sermon to seminarians (most of whom were residential students) at the start of a new academic year, and about two-to-three weeks into the fall semester. How did she contextualize this sermon to them? Offer ideas and concrete examples. How did she use the contextualizing she did in the introduction to the sermon as a way to orient listeners to the story of Gideon?
• Name some preachers that you think do a good job contextualizing. What do you think makes them good at it?
• Watch the Walter Brueggemann sermon clip below. Walter Brueggemann preached this sermon during Advent in a university chapel setting. What strategies did he employ in his introduction in order to contextualize his sermon to that specific setting at that specific time?
• Look back at Leonora Tubbs Tisdale’s seven sources for congregational context: stories and interviews, archival material, demographics, architecture and visual arts, rituals, events and activities, and people. If you made a decision to pursue one of more of these sources of context, which ones would you choose, and why? What do you think you would find out about your local congregation?
• Watch the D.A. Horton sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, D. A. Horton tells a story about explaining the doctrine of sin to a gang member. What did he do to make sin more intelligible to the person he met while shoveling snow? What did he do to make the story accessible to those listening to his sermon?
• Would you say your tendency as a preacher is to over-contextualize or under-contextualize? Explain your answer.
• How does your nationality enhance your interpretation of Scripture? How might it hinder it? What about your race or ethnicity? Gender? Socioeconomic status?
• Many Latinx theologians use the term lo cotidiano (“daily lived experience”) to describe the daily lived experiences of Latina/os. What do you think is the daily lived experience for most of the people you serve in your ministry context?
• Listen to the Jannette Ok sermon clip below. Jannette Ok preached this sermon in the local church where she pastors. She preached from Matthew 11:28-30 during the Advent season. How did she contextualize to listeners in her local congregation during Advent? Offer ideas and concrete examples. How did she use contextualizing in the introduction as a way to orient listeners to Jesus’ charge: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28)?
• In Delivering the Sermon, Teresa L. Fry Brown offers us a helpful exercise for understanding our congregation. Answer the following questions pertaining to your context.

• What is the ethnic, cultural, gender, age, racial, health, theological, social, educational composition of your congregation?
• What is the “typical” worship style/form/design used?
• What comprises good preaching in your setting?
• How do listeners respond to preaching?
• How do listeners participate in worship?
• Who is listening? What is your estimation of the faith stance of the congregation (believers, nonbelievers, pretenders, churched, unchurched, dechurched, those in transition)?
• Is your preaching transportable or adaptable?
• Are there any topics that would be off-limits in this setting?

1. Brown, Delivering the Sermon, (Minneapolis.: Fortress Press, 2008), 23–24.

Individual Reflection

• Where do I locate myself in my attentiveness to contextualization as a preacher? What do these insights reveal to me?
• If I were to solicit feedback, what would others tell me (or what have they already told me) about my attentiveness to contextualization?
• What would it look like for me to take greater risks (i.e., stretch myself) in the process of contextualization in order to grow?
• Name two to three attainable goals that will help you grow in your capacity to preach contextually. In addition to writing down your goals, explain why you chose these goals.

Chapter 4: Preach Clearly

Chapter 4 - Introduction

Chapter 4 - Collaborator Discussion

Student Discussion Questions

• Watch the Cynthia Hale sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, Cynthia Hale introduces the subject matter of her sermon. How does she practice clarity in order to introduces us to the subject matter?
• Here is a theological term to unpack: sanctification. Use accessible language to describe what sanctification means. Watch out for big words, and watch out for churchy words that people who did not grow up in church would miss.
• Watch the Richard Gay sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, Richard Gay exegetes the text without speaking over his listeners’ heads. What strategies does he use?
• In the final section, “Commit to Brevity,” I gave six examples from Scripture that are both simple and sophisticated. Try to find six more.
• Watch the Padilla DeBorst sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, Ruth Padilla DeBorst helps listeners understand how the birth of Jesus disrupts the Pax Romana. What strategies does she use in order to help her listeners understand how disruptive the birth of Jesus is to Roman power and dominance?
• Write down two to three statements in which you say what you believe about God, the gospel, or humanity. If in a group setting, share these statements with the group. Use accessible language. If you really want to challenge yourself, make your statements twelve words or less.
• Watch the Carolyn Gordon sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, how does Carolyn Gordon make her language accessible to listeners?
• Reflect on the quotes you have memorized from theologians, pastors, popular figures, and mentors. What makes these statements memorable?
• Watch the Amos Yong sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, Amos Yong (and his translator) uses concise exegetical insights in order to help his listeners understand what is taking place when Peter and John healing a disabled beggar in the temple complex in Acts 3. What insights does he bring into focus in his sermon and how do these insights help him communicate the story’s power to his listeners?
• Reflect on the four modes of clarity: concise exegesis, accessible language, a clear main idea, and commitment to brevity. Which one do you think is a strength for you? Which one is a growth area? Explain.
• Orality experiment: Turn the following five sentences into sentences for the ear instead of sentences for the eye.
  --God’s grace challenges a person’s presuppositions concerning who does and does not have value in the world.
  --The human capacity to sin defies conventional understandings of what is acceptable behavior.
  --Misplaced and disordered desires lead to further estrangement from God and from others.
  --Unchecked uses of power further disadvantage the marginalized and further harm the cause of justice.
  --Attempts at divine acceptance through merit-based righteousness are destined to fail and are rooted in a misunderstanding of divine-human covenantal relationship.
  
• Here are five main ideas that need help moving toward becoming homiletical ideas. Develop a concise, memorable main idea with each of these statements. Aim for twelve words or less.
  --Abraham kept on believing because he was convinced that God had the power to do what he had promised (Rom. 4).
  --The cross is worth boasting in because it sets us free from worldly captivity (Gal. 6:14).
  --Paul wins a hearing without compromising his beliefs by changing the means of his message rather than the message itself (Acts 17).
  --The reasons to be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to become angry are so that God’s justice can advance and God’s Word can plant itself in us (James 1).
  --A widow discovers God’s abundant supply when she offers even the little that she has back to God (2 Kings 4).

Individual Reflection

• Where do I locate myself in my attentiveness to preaching with clarity? What do these insights reveal to me?
• If I were to solicit feedback, what would others tell me (or what have they already told me) about my attentiveness to preaching with clarity?
• What would it look like for me to take greater risks (i.e., stretch myself) so that I can grow in my capacity to preach clearly?
• Name two to three attainable goals that will help you grow in your capacity to preach with clarity. In addition to writing down your goals, explain why you chose these goals.

Chapter 5: Preach Concretely

Chapter 5 - Introduction

Chapter 5 Collaborator Discussion

Student Discussion Questions

• Watch the Craig Barnes sermon clip below. How does Craig Barnes “climb down the ladder of abstraction” in order to help his listeners understand the connection between justice and love?
• Romans 12:9 reads: “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Offer at least five concrete answers to the question, “What does that look like in your context?”
• Read Genesis 16 in its entirety. Write down the concrete details in the biblical text that you think are the most important details for preachers to emphasize.
• Listen to the Elizabeth Conde-Frazier sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, how does Elizabeth Conde-Frazier help her listeners understand the difference between fear and fearlessness?
• Read Luke 16:19–31, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. How might this text be heard by different constituencies in your congregation and in society?
• Define the following terms in a way that a twenty-first-century listener might understand them: compassion, charity, evil, good.
• Watch the Eung Yul Ryoo sermon clip below. What strategies does Eung Yul Ryoo use in order to help listeners understand that the growth of the church in South Korea has come through major sacrifices?
• Think about hate as a category. Come up with at least six instances of hate in Scripture.
• Watch the Pablow Jiménez sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, Pablo Jiménez uses concreteness in order to help his listeners understand why those outside the church are not to sure that they can trust the church anymore. How does he do this?
• Here is an abstract category: greed. Find at least three different ways to talk about what greed might look like in your context. Climb down the ladder of abstraction.
• Think about the abstract category of happiness. Write down concrete objects, moments, etc., that you associate with it (e.g., opening Christmas presents, enjoying a meal, etc.). Be as specific as you can.
• Describe a scene from your day. Pay careful attention to the details of that scene and write down what you remember. Why did you remember these details?

Individual Reflection

• Where do I locate myself in my attentiveness to preaching concretely? What do these insights reveal to me?
• If I were to solicit feedback, what would others tell me (or what have they already told me) about my attentiveness to preaching with concreteness?
• What would it look like for me to take greater risks (i.e., stretch myself) in preaching concretely so that I can grow in this area?
• Name two to three attainable goals that will help you grow in your capacity to preach concretely. In addition to writing down your goals, explain why you chose these goals.

Chapter 6: Preach Creatively

Chapter 6 - Introduction

Chapter 6 Collaborator Discussion

Student Discussion Questions

• Listen to the Fred Craddock sermon clip below. How does Fred Craddock tell the gospel story through another story about something that happened to him. What makes the story a good story? What makes someone a good storyteller?
• “But I’m not creative” and “Creative preaching isn’t faithful preaching” are two of the statements that hinder creativity in preachers. How do these statements strike you? Do you resonate with these statements? If so, why? If not, why not? Explain.
• Listen to the Jill Briscoe sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt, Jill Briscoe uses her creativity in order to help her listeners see and feel the power of the gospel? What strategies does she use in order to accomplish this goal?
• Read the following excerpt from an essay by Anna Carter Florence on imaginative preaching.
  
  So, what exactly does a “faithfully imaginative” sermon look like? This is hard to say; it may be easier to start with what it doesn’t look like. A sermon that has arisen out of the preacher’s faithful imagination doesn’t look like a dressed-up version of a regular old, workaday sermon. It isn’t a sermon in party clothes. It probably looks like an invitation to go and live somewhere. It probably looks like a person (the preacher) who has agreed, for a few transparent moments, to show us what it might look like to actually accept that invitation. Most of all, I think it looks like a moment when we know, for sure, that we are in the presence of grace and truth—and the world we thought we knew seems different, somehow. It has movement. It has possibility. It has a place where we fit, each one of us. In those moments, the preacher disappears. The focus is on another realm, another place; we leave that sort of sermon saying, “I saw something completely new today!” instead of “What a star that preacher is!” (1)
  
  What would have to happen for your preaching to move closer to Florence’s description? What would you have to give up? What would you gain?
  
• Our congregants are distracted by all kinds of impediments as are we. What distractions do you engage in so that you can keep yourself from being bored? What keeps you from having time to think, and why do you think it keeps you from that important time?
• Watch the Jonathan Pokluda sermon clip below. In this sermon clip, Jonathan Pokluda uses his introduction as a way to orient listeners to the subject of meaninglessness in the Book of Ecclesiastes (Ecc. 2:1-11). How does he use his creativity in order to help people engage with the main theme of the sermon (hint: he does it in more than one way? Why do you think his listeners remembered this introduction more than they remembered other introductions?
• Think of some of the creative preachers that you have heard recently. In what way were they creative? What did they do well?
• We mentioned at least three obstacles to creativity in preaching: constraint, time pressure, and overemphasis on the status quo. Which obstacle do you struggle with most? Why? What changes could you make to have it be less of a struggle?
• Watch the Oscar Romero sermon clip below. In this sermon excerpt (the final sermon that he preached before being assassinated), Oscar Romero connects the imaginative work of theology together with the pursuit of justice. How does he do this?
• Where do you see creativity on display in Scripture? Where do you see it on display in your everyday life?
• How could you “collaborate instead of isolate” in the preparation and delivery of sermons?
• Listen to the Ralph West sermon clip below. Analyze Ralph West’s creativity as you listen to this audio file. For instance, how does the preacher make his words “sing” through poetics? What metaphors does he use for God? How does he tell a story?

1. Florence, The Preaching Imagination, 122 (emphasis in original).

Individual Reflection

• Where do I locate myself in my attentiveness to preaching creative / imaginative sermons? What do these insights reveal to me?
• If I were to solicit feedback, what would others tell me (or what have they already told me) about my attentiveness to preaching creatively?
• What would it look like for me to take greater risks (i.e., stretch myself) in preaching creatively in order to grow?
• Name two to three attainable goals that will help you grow in your capacity to preach creatively. In addition to writing down your goals, explain why you chose these goals.