Witness of Preaching

Rating:
Summary: Fine introduction to preaching
Review: In this book, Thomas Long gives those preparing to preach a fine, step-by-step introduction to sermon writing and delivery. Beginning with choosing a text, Long shows how one might analyze the text to determine the central meaning, and look for new angles in Bible passages that may challenge our understanding of that text (or make for a unique sermon). The remaining steps are similarly detailed, yet highly adaptable for your own individual style. Furthermore, Long apparently knows the young preacher's habit of delivering a sermon that is either too broad or rambling, so he always makes sure that the sermon stays on-track. Finally, a big benefit of this book is Long's constant reminder that sermons are works that are meant to be delivered orally, and thus heard (not read). Keeping the lay audience in mind and how people typically listen/hear was highly valuable to me. Recommended for those who want to learn more about what kind of work goes into sermon prep.

Rating:
Summary: Fine introduction to preaching
Review: In this book, Thomas Long gives those preparing to preach a fine, step-by-step introduction to sermon writing and delivery. Beginning with choosing a text, Long shows how one might analyze the text to determine the central meaning, and look for new angles in Bible passages that may challenge our understanding of that text (or make for a unique sermon). The remaining steps are similarly detailed, yet highly adaptable for your own individual style. Furthermore, Long apparently knows the young preacher's habit of delivering a sermon that is either too broad or rambling, so he always makes sure that the sermon stays on-track. Finally, a big benefit of this book is Long's constant reminder that sermons are works that are meant to be delivered orally, and thus heard (not read). Keeping the lay audience in mind and how people typically listen/hear was highly valuable to me. Recommended for those who want to learn more about what kind of work goes into sermon prep.

Rating:
Summary: Essential for sermon builders
Review: Reading Thomas G. Long's book has given me new inspiration as a preacher and pastor. I wish I had this book as a student! I especially enjoyed the two first chapters, where he gives a solid theolgical basis for the sermon AND for the preacher. Pastors and preachers do not, as we tend to think, come to the church from the outside, but are witnesses to The Word coming form within the church itself. He then goes on providing the reader with theoretical and practical advice for building the sermon. Preachers from all denominations will benefit from this book!

Rating:
Summary: Essential for sermon builders
Review: Reading Thomas G. Long's book has given me new inspiration as a preacher and pastor. I wish I had this book as a student! I especially enjoyed the two first chapters, where he gives a solid theolgical basis for the sermon AND for the preacher. Pastors and preachers do not, as we tend to think, come to the church from the outside, but are witnesses to The Word coming form within the church itself. He then goes on providing the reader with theoretical and practical advice for building the sermon. Preachers from all denominations will benefit from this book!

Rating:
Summary: Good Theology, Good Preaching, & A Couple of Reservations
Review: Tom Long's "The Witness of Preaching" is a refreshing and readable look at homiletics. Long is well versed in the dominant literature and gives insight into preachers such as Fred Craddock and David Buttrick. However, his real accomplishment is found in the first chapter. Unlike some homiletics texts which focus on rhetoric or communication theory, Long begins with theology. Drawing from Old and New Testament roots, Long offers an image of preacher as the one who "bears witness." Long's beginning chapter is well worth the price of the entire book. In actuality, the chapter probably could stand alone. Will Willimon suggests as much by excerpting part of the chapter in "Pastor: A Reader for Ordained Ministry" (Abingdon Press, 2002).

The image of the preacher "bearing witness" guides the rest of the book. Instead of promoting rigid forms or rules, Long promotes flexibility in preaching. The preacher must make choices based upon the task of preaching. The author offers practical advice on sermon forms, introductions, conclusions, and the like without being pedantic. I only wish that Tom Long had included more examples. However, an interested reader can easily find collections of Long's sermons on Amazon.

I only have one other reservation. This one concerns the sticky issue of hermeneutics. To be fair, interpreting the Bible faithfully is a challenge. Giving advice for faithful interpretation is even more challenging. However, Long leaves the reader wanting more. At one place, he suggests that biblical preaching "does not mean merely talking about the Bible, using the Bible to bolster doctrinal arguments, or applying biblical 'principles' to everyday life" (pg 48). As a preacher who suffers to be "biblical," I could not be in greater agreement. Scripture contains ideas and principles, but these cannot be ripped away from their context. Otherwise one easily preaches abstractions, cut from the moorings of Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension and return. However, Long does not seem consistent dealing with difficult texts such as household codes in the New Testament: "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters." There he suggests the need to separate gospel from what is culturally conditioned. According to Long, the task is difficult--

"The point is that texts which scream cultural bias are also gospel texts, and texts which shout the gospel are also culturally conditioned. There is no surgical procedure for separating the tissues, no guaranteed way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Hearing the claim of God in and through a biblical text always demands and act of faithful imagination, a refusing to let a text go until it has blessed us..." (pg 52).

How different is this "blessing" from discovering "biblical `principles'"? Long offers no distinction except the term "faithful imagination." Interpreting difficult texts is the challenge of every preacher, and this reader would have loved some guidance in what consists a "faithful imagination."

Despite these reservations, Tom Long delivers an excellent primer on homiletics.

Rating:
Summary: Good Theology, Good Preaching, & A Couple of Reservations
Review: Tom Long's "The Witness of Preaching" is a refreshing and readable look at homiletics. Long is well versed in the dominant literature and gives insight into preachers such as Fred Craddock and David Buttrick. However, his real accomplishment is found in the first chapter. Unlike some homiletics texts which focus on rhetoric or communication theory, Long begins with theology. Drawing from Old and New Testament roots, Long offers an image of preacher as the one who "bears witness." Long's beginning chapter is well worth the price of the entire book. In actuality, the chapter probably could stand alone. Will Willimon suggests as much by excerpting part of the chapter in "Pastor: A Reader for Ordained Ministry" (Abingdon Press, 2002).

The image of the preacher "bearing witness" guides the rest of the book. Instead of promoting rigid forms or rules, Long promotes flexibility in preaching. The preacher must make choices based upon the task of preaching. The author offers practical advice on sermon forms, introductions, conclusions, and the like without being pedantic. I only wish that Tom Long had included more examples. However, an interested reader can easily find collections of Long's sermons on Amazon.

I only have one other reservation. This one concerns the sticky issue of hermeneutics. To be fair, interpreting the Bible faithfully is a challenge. Giving advice for faithful interpretation is even more challenging. However, Long leaves the reader wanting more. At one place, he suggests that biblical preaching "does not mean merely talking about the Bible, using the Bible to bolster doctrinal arguments, or applying biblical 'principles' to everyday life" (pg 48). As a preacher who suffers to be "biblical," I could not be in greater agreement. Scripture contains ideas and principles, but these cannot be ripped away from their context. Otherwise one easily preaches abstractions, cut from the moorings of Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension and return. However, Long does not seem consistent dealing with difficult texts such as household codes in the New Testament: "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters." There he suggests the need to separate gospel from what is culturally conditioned. According to Long, the task is difficult--

"The point is that texts which scream cultural bias are also gospel texts, and texts which shout the gospel are also culturally conditioned. There is no surgical procedure for separating the tissues, no guaranteed way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Hearing the claim of God in and through a biblical text always demands and act of faithful imagination, a refusing to let a text go until it has blessed us..." (pg 52).

How different is this "blessing" from discovering "biblical 'principles'"? Long offers no distinction except the term "faithful imagination." Interpreting difficult texts is the challenge of every preacher, and this reader would have loved some guidance in what consists a "faithful imagination."

Despite these reservations, Tom Long delivers an excellent primer on homiletics.