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Questions Preachers Ask: Essays in Honor of Thomas G. Long
"How do we preach in a way that affirms Christian theology while also honoring the insights of other faith traditions?" "How do we preach about and help create genuine Christian community in a social networking culture?"Questions Preachers Ask examines many questions that are on the minds of preachers today, questions that focus on how to preach the gospel in a culture where biblical knowledge cannot be presumed and where the Bible is often viewed as untrustworthy. Well-known preachers, scholars, and authors, including Barbara Brown Taylor, Gail O'Day, Anna Carter Florence, Richard Lischer, and Thomas Lynch, provide the answers.
This book, compiled to honor writer, preacher, teacher, and scholar Thomas G. Long at the end of his teaching career, addresses practical questions such as "How do we proclaim the good news to young adults who are on the margins of church or have left it?" and "How do we preach to faith communities that are highly diverse?" Perfect for preachers at any stage of their ministry, these essays offer hope and guidance for handling the difficult task of preaching in today's congregations.
This book, compiled to honor writer, preacher, teacher, and scholar Thomas G. Long at the end of his teaching career, addresses practical questions such as "How do we proclaim the good news to young adults who are on the margins of church or have left it?" and "How do we preach to faith communities that are highly diverse?" Perfect for preachers at any stage of their ministry, these essays offer hope and guidance for handling the difficult task of preaching in today's congregations.
194 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2016
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December 31, 2016
As a preacher myself, I'm keenly aware of the questions preachers ask about our craft. That a festschrift honoring Thomas Long would carry such a title is fitting. After all, Tom Long has been a teacher of preachers and author of numerous books and articles that have helped guide the purveyors of the preaching craft. As one who co-edited a festscrift, I also know the challenge of bringing together essays that will honor a person's contributions to the Academy, while also having something coherent to say to the reader. The essayists in this book have done an excellent job of fulfilling both requirements. This is a book that will honor the work of Tom Long as well as provide those who preach with a fitting resource for one's work.
Tom Long is Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He succeeded Fred Craddock in this position, having taught at Princeton prior to his move to Candler. Filling Craddock's shoes would not be easy, but Long has distinguished himself as a preacher, teacher, and author. I had the opportunity to hear him preach about twenty years ago, after he was named by Baylor University as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English-speaking world (I just happened to be in Waco visiting a friend who is himself an excellent preacher and teacher of preachers). At the time Craddock, another of the twelve, was still at Candler and Long at Princeton.
The festschrift began life when the editors, two of whom had been colleagues, and one a former student, decided to poll a group of thirty preachers to see what questions they had regarding preaching. With that information they came up with eleven questions, which addressed the use of the Bible, the role of theology, changing congregational contexts, church and culture, and finally, in part five, a consideration in one chapter of hopeful signs. With questions in hand they turned to eleven preachers and teachers of preachers to address the questions. Many of the names will be well known, including Barbara Brown Taylor, Anna Carter Florence, Richard Lischer, and others. The book closes with a poem written by Tom Lynch, a long-time funeral director here in Southeast MIchigan, and co-author of two books with Long about funerals -- the most recent being The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care.
It is fitting that Lynch opens his triptych with the words:
The etymology is perilous:
pulpit from pulpitum, meaning scaffold,
by which we come, at length, to catafalque---
those f's and a's, like tongue -and-groove boards,
like rope enough to hang, or hoist, or let
a corpse down to its permanent repose.
It goes on from there, but it seems fitting to speak of the pulpit in such morbid terms!
Each of the essays addresses a different aspect of preaching, and I can't share all here, but I'll give a flavor. I found the opening essay by biblical scholar Gail O'Day to be especially poignant. She was tasked with addressing the question of how we can "reclaim the Bible in the pulpit for people who have little grounding in it or connection to it." In other words, how do preachers address an audience that may be biblically illiterate. Here answer may surprise. We're not to reclaim, but proclaim its message. She reminds us that literacy itself is rather recent. She writes of Jesus' use of Isaiah in Luke 4, noting that it is a "poignant reminder that communal worship not about reclaiming the Bible but about the holy possibility of hearing the Bible together for the first time" (p. 7). Later in the final essay, Sally Brown takes note of the fact that the New Homiletic took for granted a certain level of biblical literacy, which can no longer be assumed. Thus, we'll need to learn to tell the story (proclaim it) anew.
There are essays on the form of the sermon, how to organize one's preaching (lectionary or series, etc.). In this essay the focus is on creating a workable and meaningful sermon series that addresses contemporary questions and deals with scripture appropriately. Barbara Brown Taylor addresses the question of how to preach in a pluralistic context -- being faithful to the Gospel while recognizing the possibility of engaging other religious traditions. There is an essay on authority in an age when traditional authorities are suspect (something preachers quickly discover if they didn't already know it when they enter preaching ministry).
The section on changing contexts will be of great interest to many preachers, as the essayists deal with preaching to multi-cultural congregations, to young adults, and to those depressed and discouraged at shrinking congregations. Richard Lischer suggests that the "umbrella narrative is ultimately not one of ecclessial slippage but the freedom of God to go into uncharted places and to create new realities" (p. 110). In Part IV, which deals with the relationship of church and culture, the essayists address the impact of social media and social justice fatigue. Finally, in Part V, Sally Brown offers a word of hope for the future. Hope there is.
We can be thankful for these gifts that honor the work of Tom Long, while speaking to our own needs as preachers. There is much for thought in these pages. Each essay has something valuable to say to us. So, if you're a preacher or student preparing to preach, this is a book to read and keep close at hand.
Tom Long is Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He succeeded Fred Craddock in this position, having taught at Princeton prior to his move to Candler. Filling Craddock's shoes would not be easy, but Long has distinguished himself as a preacher, teacher, and author. I had the opportunity to hear him preach about twenty years ago, after he was named by Baylor University as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English-speaking world (I just happened to be in Waco visiting a friend who is himself an excellent preacher and teacher of preachers). At the time Craddock, another of the twelve, was still at Candler and Long at Princeton.
The festschrift began life when the editors, two of whom had been colleagues, and one a former student, decided to poll a group of thirty preachers to see what questions they had regarding preaching. With that information they came up with eleven questions, which addressed the use of the Bible, the role of theology, changing congregational contexts, church and culture, and finally, in part five, a consideration in one chapter of hopeful signs. With questions in hand they turned to eleven preachers and teachers of preachers to address the questions. Many of the names will be well known, including Barbara Brown Taylor, Anna Carter Florence, Richard Lischer, and others. The book closes with a poem written by Tom Lynch, a long-time funeral director here in Southeast MIchigan, and co-author of two books with Long about funerals -- the most recent being The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care.
It is fitting that Lynch opens his triptych with the words:
The etymology is perilous:
pulpit from pulpitum, meaning scaffold,
by which we come, at length, to catafalque---
those f's and a's, like tongue -and-groove boards,
like rope enough to hang, or hoist, or let
a corpse down to its permanent repose.
It goes on from there, but it seems fitting to speak of the pulpit in such morbid terms!
Each of the essays addresses a different aspect of preaching, and I can't share all here, but I'll give a flavor. I found the opening essay by biblical scholar Gail O'Day to be especially poignant. She was tasked with addressing the question of how we can "reclaim the Bible in the pulpit for people who have little grounding in it or connection to it." In other words, how do preachers address an audience that may be biblically illiterate. Here answer may surprise. We're not to reclaim, but proclaim its message. She reminds us that literacy itself is rather recent. She writes of Jesus' use of Isaiah in Luke 4, noting that it is a "poignant reminder that communal worship not about reclaiming the Bible but about the holy possibility of hearing the Bible together for the first time" (p. 7). Later in the final essay, Sally Brown takes note of the fact that the New Homiletic took for granted a certain level of biblical literacy, which can no longer be assumed. Thus, we'll need to learn to tell the story (proclaim it) anew.
There are essays on the form of the sermon, how to organize one's preaching (lectionary or series, etc.). In this essay the focus is on creating a workable and meaningful sermon series that addresses contemporary questions and deals with scripture appropriately. Barbara Brown Taylor addresses the question of how to preach in a pluralistic context -- being faithful to the Gospel while recognizing the possibility of engaging other religious traditions. There is an essay on authority in an age when traditional authorities are suspect (something preachers quickly discover if they didn't already know it when they enter preaching ministry).
The section on changing contexts will be of great interest to many preachers, as the essayists deal with preaching to multi-cultural congregations, to young adults, and to those depressed and discouraged at shrinking congregations. Richard Lischer suggests that the "umbrella narrative is ultimately not one of ecclessial slippage but the freedom of God to go into uncharted places and to create new realities" (p. 110). In Part IV, which deals with the relationship of church and culture, the essayists address the impact of social media and social justice fatigue. Finally, in Part V, Sally Brown offers a word of hope for the future. Hope there is.
We can be thankful for these gifts that honor the work of Tom Long, while speaking to our own needs as preachers. There is much for thought in these pages. Each essay has something valuable to say to us. So, if you're a preacher or student preparing to preach, this is a book to read and keep close at hand.
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