Ebook
Preaching from Inside the Story is a book that seeks to carve out an understanding of narrative preaching in an age where there is little agreement about its nature and practice. Capitalizing on the works of Craddock and Lowry, it seeks to find an expanded palette upon which the preacher may engage the larger canvas of narrative preaching. This book will engage the mind by introducing neuroscientific understandings of creativity; build upon the foundations of the philosophy of stories by engaging Aristotle’s foundational understanding of narrative; and renew the Lowry Loop by expanding this seminal work and how it should be understood in our current culture. Preaching from Inside the Story breaks new ground by encouraging preachers to move inside stories and tell them from the inside out providing a positive effect, thereby affording non-narrative preachers to connect with storytelling principles. Ultimately, it is filled with examples of how to do narrative in a very practical way. However, in showing these practical examples, the reader is involved in a deep analysis of those narrative sermons and how they fit into an overall narrative understanding of preaching. In the final analysis, it invites the reader to take a fresh journey into narrative preaching.
“Preaching from Inside the Story is a necessary book, one
that comes at a critical time in the life of the church and the
culture. This book invites us to consider preaching in a new way
and then leads us on a journey in which Frymire is a faithful
guide. Written with the head of a scholar and the heart of a
shepherd, this book shows what preaching can be and, perhaps, what
it is meant to be. I commend this book to the pulpit and the
pew!”
—Timothy J. Clarke, Senior Pastor, First Church of God, Columbus,
Ohio
“Frymire . . . ushers preachers into a greater
interdisciplinary understanding of narrative in both theory and
practice with the hope that they would ‘tell the story’ of the
gospel more faithfully and effectively. A gifted storytelling
preacher himself, I can think of no better teacher for this topic
than Frymire. This book is a gift, and readers will come away
excited and ignited by a fresh holy breath of creativity.”
—Luke A. Powery, Duke University
“We are, as Jeff says, wired for story. Those of us who dare to
learn to preach from inside the story may soon find that people
will be leaning in on the front edge of their pews. The sermon
story will captivate them, just as all stories do for people who
are hardwired to hear stories. That includes all of us. Enjoy this
tale, told by a master storyteller, of how to preach inside the
story.”
—Clay Schmit, Emmanuel Academies
Jeffrey W. Frymire is the Associate Professor of Preaching and
Dean of the Chapel at Asbury Seminary in Orlando, Florida. He is
the author of the book Preaching the Story (2006).
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