Getting to God: Preaching Good News in a Troubled World
Ebook
During times of deep trouble, God generates new and creative ways to break through the fear and pain to get to us even as we seek to get to God. Recent crises are unparalleled and world-changing. Life is a terminal condition. What we say on Sunday morning matters. Nothing is more important than communicating the power and presence of the living God, who for us and our broken dying world is strength, hope, healing, and salvation. And yet, the age-old challenge of how to name God in our world looms large. Amidst the immense challenges of preaching today, three preachers and teachers of preaching show a way forward by walking readers through a sermon-creation process for specific challenging circumstances that gets to God. This book demonstrates how preachers can proclaim God's grace in our world today by building on the theological grammar and preaching method proposed by Paul Scott Wilson. Sancken, Powery, and Rottman lead by example, showing preachers how to contextualize a theologically rich approach to preaching, expand the horizon of ministry, and equip preachers with a vital practice, that of learning to look for and name God's active presence in our world.
“Paul Scott Wilson has done more than any other recent scholar to insist on the theological character of preaching through his four-pages approach to the sermon, attention to the evocative possibilities of language, and emphasis on preaching Christian doctrine. This book, written in his honor by three of his most talented students, opens even more windows on how preachers can bring the good news of a gracious and redeeming God to an increasingly troubled world.”
—Ronald J. Allen, Christian Theological Seminary
“Getting to God reminds us that sermons fail if they do not first ‘get to God,’ that is, point boldly to God’s action in life. Since God’s action is never abstract, the authors also sharpen our attention to the very particular contexts of preaching. Thus, by guiding those of us who preach to ‘get to God,’ they free us to preach in ways that show how ‘God gets to us.’ A stimulating and much-needed volume!”
—Thomas G. Long, Candler School of Theology
- Title: Getting to God: Preaching Good News in a Troubled World
- Authors: Joni S. Sancken, Luke A. Powery, John Rottman, Paul Scott Wilson
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666797008, 9781666737493, 1666737496, 9781666796995, 1666796999, 1666797006
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666797008
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-02-26T10:58:01Z
Joni S. Sancken is associate professor of homiletics at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio. She is an ordained pastor in the Mennonite Church USA and is the author of several books, including Words That Heal, and All Our Griefs to Bear.
Luke A. Powery is the dean of Duke University Chapel and associate professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He is an ordained Baptist minister (Progressive National Baptist) and the author and editor of several books, including co-author of Ways of the Word: Learning to Preach for Your Time and Place and a general editor of the nine-volume lectionary commentary series for preaching and worship, Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship.
John M. Rottman is the professor of preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was ordained in the Christian Reformed Church and served two congregations in the Toronto (Canada) area. Most recently, he has become passionate about prison theological education and what God is doing in prisons.