Leading with the Sermon: Preaching as Leadership

by William H. Willimon

In this addition to the new Working Preacher Books series, prolific author William H. Willimon makes the compelling case that two key pastoral tasks--preaching and leadership--complement, correct, strengthen, and inform one another. Preaching is the distinctive function of pastoral leaders. Leadership of the church, particularly during a challenging time of transition in mainline Protestantism, has become a pressing concern for pastors.

This book shows how the practices, skills, and intentions of Christian preaching can be helpful to the leadership of a congregation. It will also show how leadership is an appropriate expectation for sermons. In preaching, pastoral leaders can help a congregation face its problems and coordinate its God-given resources to address those problems. Sermons can be an opportunity to articulate, motivate, and orchestrate God's people in doing God's work in the church and in the world.

Leading with the Sermon includes chapters on why pastors must be leaders, why preaching is such an essential task in telling the truth about the gospel, how preaching makes better leaders, and how better leaders make better preachers.

Genres: Leadership

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2020

About the author

The Reverend Dr. William H. Willimon is Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at the Divinity School, Duke University. He served eight years as Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church, where he led the 157,000 Methodists and 792 pastors in North Alabama. For twenty years prior to the episcopacy, he was Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

Reviews

[Jeff Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5*

A fantastic book, except for the few sections I completely disagreed with. Such is Willimon.

[C.T. Eldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s lots of random wisdom here related to both preaching, leadership, and how the two are related. It probably could’ve stood to have been thirty to fifty pages shorter. The book could be a bit “rambly” at times, making it longer than it probably needed to be. But the last chapter had a lot of good stuff, so it was ultimately worth it for me to finish all the way.

Best I can tell there is no structure or overall flow of the book. It seems to be somewhat random thoughts on preaching and leadership. It does contain a lot of helpful thoughts, but it is not a systematic, practical, or thorough examination of what the two disciplines are and how they relate. It’s more devotional, pastoral, you might say. But it’s coming from an author who is really well read and really experienced, so it’s not “fluffy”. There is substance; it’s just kind of haphazardly put together, in my opinion.

The book is definitely written from the perspective of the current situation in mainline Protestantism, specifically United Methodists. A lot of the specific problems they’re facing frame the way he addresses certain problems. I found this perspective interesting and helpful even if foreign and somewhat hard to relate with, as a low church evangelical.

[John Connolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will change how you think about being a church leader

As I read I often will highlight text that really speak to me. Most of this book is yellow.

I don't care how proficient of a preacher you may be, I am confident that this book, if taken seriously, will help you be a better preacher. One of the most important lessons I leave this book having enforced is the need for humility. It is God's call and mission for the sake of God's people; not mine.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is vintage Willimon. It's direct and blunt at times (he's not big on sabbaticals and emphases on self-care among clergy. That aside, he offers a compelling case for the connection between preaching and leadership. This isn't a book about a method of preaching. It is a reminder that preaching sets the course for the congregation. It is, as the opening chapter declares, the most important leadership activity.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a helpful read for me as someone who just recently began preaching for a church on a weekly basis. Willimon gives the preacher a wider net to use in the pulpit. The downside of this book is that Willimon writes harshly and lacks grace in his content. He can come across as angry at times and I didn't find those portions compelling. Overall though, a book worth reading for preachers.

[David Blankenship · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt more like a random collection of challenges (and rebukes) to ministers about leadership than a book about preaching. It was good, as William Willimon has more helpful things to say about church leadership than almost anyone out there...but the book itself didn't seem to have much flow to it. Lots of good in here if you are willing to go in a thousand different directions.

[Monika Schrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource for pastors, but also lay leaders, councils and any others focused on mission and faithful leadership.

[Rob O'Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own 12 books by William Willimon (including both editions of Pastor. The only author that I have more books of is C.S. Lewis (13, not including his fictional writings). The next closest author is Walter Brueggemann (9). I turn to his Interpretation commentary any time I preach or teach from Acts, and I use a few of articles in some of my classes. His co-authored classic Resident Aliens is one of the books that has most shaped me theologically. To say that Willimon has been a major influence on me would be something of an understatement, even if I rarely note it.

Needless to say, I was quite excited when his newest book -- Leading with the Sermon -- was announced. I deeply appreciate this new series from the Working Preacher organization, drawing from a variety of leaders in the preaching field to present new material on topics not normally covered in traditional homiletic literature. For example, Karoline Lewis has just released a volume on writing sermons for lay persons. The line-up thus far has been impressive, and I am looking forward to future volumes.

In this volume, Willimon shines as only Willimon can. Almost every line is tweetable and you can almost hear him narrate in his southern drawl in your head. This book has been released at just the right time. Ministers everywhere, regardless of denomination or creedal alliance, are finding more questions than answers. And almost all of them relate to leadership, that elusive, complex attribute that all ministers wish they could understand better.

Pulled mostly from his time back in local ministry following his long tenure at Duke Divinity School (although he does pull from his early experiences, as well), Willimon broaches the topic with pastoral sensitivity, the kind that comes from a seasoned leader. This material, unlike much of the material in Brueggemann's volume in this series, is fresh. This is not a collection of "greatest hits." This is most notably seen in his promotion of Systems Theory thinking, mostly from the work of Gil Rendle. He also draws from leadership expert Ron Heifetz and pastoral scholar Donald Capps.

This book is absolutely worth your time. My only concern is that it will be passed over as irrelevant, due to Willimon's connection with a more "old guard" group of scholars or the concern that there is only recycled material here. Willimon is (in)famous for his views of "borrowing" material, something I have even taken him to task for. However, this book, as mentioned above, is fresh and will provide encouraging guidance to face the troubled days that we who preach find ourselves in.

[Kenneth Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the reader may deduct from the title that this book will help him or her develop and hone the skills of preaching a sermon, and of leading a congregation, in his typical fashion, the author presents the case that it is the inner construction, the crafting, of the soul and character of the preacher that is of the greatest importance. The book unfolds with excellent discussions of congregational leadership, and the importance of preaching, but it a lesson taught in the woodshed, where the reader has been brought to do business with his or her need for personal transformation, emotional maturity, and constant redoubling of the personal call of Jesus Christ on the entire life of the preacher.
"The answer to stress in sermon preparation is not a sabbatical sitting in the woods but rather to undertake the hard work of acquiring the homiletical skills we failed to receive in seminary." (178)
Or, "We must truthfully tell a new story about our present reality, deconstructing the old story that has us stuck in one place, being honest about the limitations of that received account of who we are and what we ought to be doing. We must tell the story in such a way that it makes sense to people, offering them new meaning that fits the realities of the present moment in a peculiarly, specifically Christian way. We must help people find themselves in this new story so they get at least a glimpse that this story is theirs."
This book does not exactly belong in the category of "how to preach" books - there are plenty of them! This book belongs in the category of the spiritual formation of the preacher as a follower of Jesus Christ.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic! It was just published in 2020 and so the message is contemporary. And today, in March 2020, it is something all preachers need to read. It is both instructive and pastoral care for church leaders right now.
I do not have enough words to recommend this book more highly.

[Nicholas Abraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t get on board with the Mainline/Progressive views that Willimon holds, but this contains some helpful content. It’s mostly a leadership book, with some preaching thoughts added in.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, energizing book!