Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art explains how to analyze a congregation so the sermon fits the listeners. This book provides practical helps for preparing and delivering sermons that are meaningful and appropriate.
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“. Seek out those symbolic ‘texts’ that have value and meaning to the members of the congregation itself.” (Page 62)
“Congregational Christian preaching is then, at its best, a highly contextual act of constructing and proclaiming theology within and on behalf of a local community of faith. It requires of the preacher interpretation of biblical texts, interpretation of contemporary contexts (including congregations and their subcultures), and the imaginative construction and communication of local theology that weds the two in a fitting and transformative way.” (Page 38)
“Good preaching not only requires its practitioners to become skilled biblical exegetes. It also requires them to become adept in ‘exegeting’ local congregations and their contexts, so that they can proclaim the gospel in relevant and transformative ways for particular communities of faith.” (Page xi)
“The method employed by the symbolic anthropologist is ethnography. Functioning within culture as a ‘participant-observer,’5 the ethnographer goes into a culture, establishes rapport with its inhabitants, and analyzes the culture while also becoming immersed in its day-to-day activities.” (Page 58)
“The awareness of individual hearers and their real-life situations prevents the preacher from (mis)using the pulpit as a platform from which to voice abstract answers to abstract theological questions posed by an abstract (and faceless) humanity.” (Page 12)