It has happened repeatedly in recent years. On Saturday afternoon, around 3 or 4 o'clock, my phone's screen flashes alive with a news alert from The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. Some of the alerts seem trivial, hardly worthy of the title "breaking news." Others, though, are so staggering that "breaking news" hardly expresses what is world-shaking, gut-wrenching, terrifying, heartbreaking.
I have friends whose anxiety is so elevated on a day-to-day basis that they have disabled all notifications and alerts on their phones. They simply no longer have the emotional or spiritual capacity to process another tragedy, and for them, this disabling is an act of self-care. One empathizes.
For those of us who regularly find ourselves in a pulpit on Sunday mornings, though, this is seldom an available option. If part of the work of preaching is bridging the distance between the world of the Scriptures and our world today, if we are interpreting the meaning and weight of eternal promises for contemporary life, then preachers must at the very least be conversant with the world as it is and as it is becoming -- even as that is unfolding in the moment.
But this raises an inevitable question: When does the preacher change Sunday's sermon in response to Saturday's news?
Read more from Nathan E. Kirkpatrick » |
A frequent Alban author reflects how the process of preaching, and in particular the time the preacher spends in preparation, can transform a preacher's life spiritually, intellectually, and professionally. But, he or she must be intentional about joining spiritual and intellectual preparation with the public act of preaching.
Read more from Bruce Epperly » |
A number of books on preaching begin with "Preaching today is facing a crisis," observers a homiletics professor at Bexley-Seabury Seminary. Yet, he also invites us to reconsider what the real crisis in preaching might be.
Read more from John Dally » |
Guns and gun violence may not be addressed in Scripture, but human dignity, the sanctity of life and other matters that speak to the issue and resonate with Christians' core beliefs are, says the Union Theological Seminary homiletics professor.
Read more from Lisa L. Thompson » |
Preaching Ethically: Being True to the Gospel, Your Congregation, and Yourself by Ronald D. Sisk
How do clergy preach to meet the legitimate needs of their congregation and live up to standards of professionalism and personal integrity? Preaching Ethically offers guidelines for preaching in light of a range of factors that might tempt a preacher to misuse the pulpit. How do you preach about controversial issues? What do you say from the pulpit when your marriage is in trouble? What are the ethics of preaching in times of local or national crisis? How do you draw from resources found on the Internet and elsewhere without plagiarizing or misleading listeners about the source of the materials? How do you write a sermon when you know very little about a subject? Why and how do you feed a congregation a balanced sermonic diet?
To be true to ourselves and our calling, says Sisk, we must examine how the many factors that can influence our preaching come into play. In the end, the calling to preach the gospel compels us to preach in ways that keep the gospel foremost, treat the congregation fairly, and are true to our own convictions and our personal integrity.
Learn more and order the book » |
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