When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit

by Jonathan C. Augustine, William J. Barber II (Foreword), William H. Willimon (Afterword)

In When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit, Jonathan C. Augustine urges twenty-first-century preachers to speak openly against social injustice, establishing such preaching as a key component of prophetic leadership.

Beginning with the premise that the church was birthed to address salvation in the kingdom-to-come and social justice in the kingdom-at-hand, Augustine presents prophetic preaching as part of the ministry of reconciliation Jesus left to the church. Addressing topics such as abusive immigration policies, environmental degradation, and racial injustices, he urges the church to return to its foundation of prophetic leadership as exemplified not only by Jesus but by the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles.

When Prophets Preach demonstrates that faithfulness to this ministry requires preachers to break the pulpit silence. Then the church can lead in bridging social and ethnic gaps among its members. It can show society at large how to heal many of the social, economic, and political divisions in our world, the very rifts that underscore the need for social justice ministries and that necessitate prophetic preaching.

Genres: Religion

166 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 28, 2023

About the author

Jay Augustine serves as senior pastor of St. Joseph AME Church (Durham, NC), missional strategist with the Duke Center for Reconciliation, and as a member of the consulting faculty at Duke Divinity School. He graduated from Howard University and served as a decorated U.S. Army infantry officer before earning his law degree from Tulane University. He subsequently gradated from United Theological Seminary and earned his doctorate at Duke University.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This certainly falls into the category of “Books I Will Return to Often.” The Rev. Dr. Jay Augustine has written a brilliant multi-faceted call for more prophetic preaching and active, visible, Christian advocacy and social engagement in the public square. The challenge to preachers is for them to be partisan but certainly to be very political. This book offers valuable suggestions and a spirit of motivation for all those who think they can’t do it. Dr. Augustine shows them they most assuredly can!

[Tara Tetzlaff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of hearing Jonathan Augustine at The Festival of Homiletics in May 2023 and was blown away. His metaphor of gumbo representing human diversity in America and in life is brilliant. I highly recommend his book to all pastors and preachers. The first half of the book breaks down why we MUST preach politically from the pulpit and is very well done. His examples in the latter half demonstrating how to build community through use of the church liturgical calendar are ingenious.

[Leonilde Colon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will an asset to any Pastor currently engaged in any type of Urban ministry. I highly recommend this book.

Dr. Leo Colon