Novel Preaching: Tips from Top Writers on Crafting Creative Sermons

by Alyce M. McKenzie

In this lively and accessible book, Alyce McKenzie explores how fiction writers approach the task of writing how they develop their ideas, where they find their inspiration, and how they turn the spark of a creative notion into words on paper that will captivate the masses. McKenzie's study shows how preachers can use the same techniques to enhance their own creativity and to turn their ideas into powerful, well crafted sermons. Novel Preaching offers a wealth of advice from successful fiction writers, including Isabelle Allende, Frederick Buechner, Julia Cameron, Annie Dillard, Natalie Goldberg, Stephen King, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, and Melanie Rae Thorn, and also includes a number of sample sermons from McKenzie herself.

Genres: Christianity, Writing

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2010

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

At one time, in an effort to become a better preacher, I read at least three dozen books on preaching. With all due respect to those sincere and dedicated authors, I don't think one of them contributed to whatever "success" I have achieved in the pulpit. The exercise convinced me to stop reading books about preaching and read books about life instead, drawing on them and using them to homiletic ends. That is how Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe, John Irving, John Steinbeck, John Barth, and John Updike ended up being preached to congregations I've served. "Novel Preaching" is a good example of why not to read books about homiletics. The writing is cutesy. It coins or borrows all manner of buzz words, for example, calling whatever is going on inside one's brain "the inscape." From all such banal and linguistically reprehensible expressions, Good Lord, deliver us. An overlong chapter takes off from the Japanese television programme "Iron Chef" and uses it as a metaphor for sermon construction. The comparison is strained to the point where the sauce breaks irreparably and becomes ludicrous after a few pages. A better way to improve one's preaching is to read/hear a large number of sermons by a great variety of preachers. Fortunately, the last third of the book comprises sermons of Professor McKenzie's own composition which illustrate the points she makes in the text. There is much to be learned from reading these. I don't recommend this book but, then again, I don't recommend any books on preaching to young preachers. Instead, read an Annie Proulx novel or some Billy Collins poetry or a short story by H.P. Lovecraft or a graphic novel by Will Eisner.

[Jeff Garrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a “working preacher” who has also taught homiletics on a graduate level, I try to read at least one book a year on the craft, along with another book on writing. This year I chose this book, written by a professor of homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, a Methodist seminary in Texas.

This book is divided into three parts. The first two deal with the practice of preaching, but the author attempts to provide the information in a creative manner. In the first part (which is what I thought the book was about from its title), she images being at the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference. Taking her readers along with her, we go from conversation to conversation with fiction authors. As we overhear their discussions, we gain insight into how preachers might us some of the tools of authors to engage his or her congregations in their sermons. We learn about noticing and being aware of what’s important in the text and in our sermons. We learn from a number of authors including Annie Dillard, Natalie Goldberg, Frederick Buechner, Stephen King, Isabelle Allende, Toni Morris. We gain insight into character, plot, and shape along with picking up ideas of how to journal and to capture such insights into the human condition.

The second part of the book involves a “make believe” cooking show. Here, she draws from well-known (and some not so well known, at least not for me) professors and writers of homiletics. Each one teaches how they approach a sermon, and the reader gets to pick up a recipe card at the end of their presentation. By the time I got to this part of the book, I was a little over with the cuteness of McKenzie’s writings. The writer’s conference wasn’t quite as overblown as this imaginary journey through some kind of convention with all kinds of “chefs,” a few of whom I’ve met, many of whom I’ve read and heard lecture. Those I knew before reading this book include Charles Rice, Fred Craddock, Tom Long, David Buttrick, Richard Eslinger, Henry Mitchell, Paul Scott Wilson, Nora Tubbs Tisdale, Justo Gonzalez, Eugene Lowry and Mike Graves. To her credit, McKenzie draws from across Western Cultures including African American, Korean American, men and women, Protestants and one Catholic example.

I found myself wondering about those not included: Tex Sample (who focuses on the language of the working class), Cornelius Plantinga, Jr (who has been writing about preaching and literature long before this book was published), Robert Smith, Jr (an African American who has strong grasp of doctrinal preaching), and Haddon Robinson. The latter really surprised me as his Biblical Preaching may be one of the most popular books on preaching and the “bible” of expository preaching.

The final section of the book was my favorite. The section consists of a number of creative sermons written by McKenzie. Who’d ever think of angels as UPS workers (after all, angels deliver messages from God which ties into the packages delivered by a UPS driver. This section of the book was my favorite and I’ll come back to it again and again. McKenzie is able to touch on her audiences fear and concerns and offer a helpful word of reassurance from scripture. I would have preferred to have read more sermons and less of her “tidbits” of information from authors and homiletic professors.

[Ian Bordenave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was blessed to have Alyce McKenzie, PhD, lead me in directed studies on narrative preaching in the fall of 2017. I enjoyed the assignments she gave me and our discussions when we met. While we read a chapter from her book Novel Preaching: Tips from Top Writers on Crafting Creative Sermons as part of my directed studies, I was pleased to read her entire book later. McKenzie’s approach is to learn from creative writers and other homileticians ways to come up with creative sermons in an effort to hold the congregation’s attention. The book’s most notable lesson is what McKenzie calls “KFN,” that is, “Knack For Noticing.” Creative writers have a knack for noticing people and things around them and the ability to render that notice in striking ways when it comes to writing. McKenzie’s theory is if preachers can do the same—KFN—they will help themselves in crafting creative sermons. The book is as much as a lesson about creative writing as it is about preaching. At the end of the book are sample sermons McKenzie uses to illustrate creative preaching. My favorite is “‘Joseph: Father of Our Dreams’: The Angel Appears to Joseph,” in which McKenzie demonstrates her own KFN.

[Emily Leininger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first part of this book. It was practical and helpful, and it was interesting to connect creative writing practices to preaching practices.

The later half of the book was not as helpful. It was rather repetitive, and many of the descriptions and analogies were long-winded and detracted from the overall meaning of the book. I did not understand the purpose of the sixth chapter. The Sermon sampler was nice.

[Chris Halverson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good re-read, got me thinking a little more creatively about preaching again.

[Keith Beasley-Topliffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many good ideas on preaching including a survey of preaching manuals from the last 40 or so years. But what brought it all together and made it come into focus was the sampling of McKenzie's own sermons.

[Nathan Willard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I sort of want to re-read this. The writing techniques being applied to sermons resonated a little bit, but the overall tone and orientation didn't speak to me. I feel like this mig be something more worthwhile the second time through.

[Christopher Pokorny · Rating 3 out of 5]

McKenzie shares interesting insight and a fresh way to think of preaching. Section one is worth perusing, specifically the concept of a "knack for noticing." The rest, I could take it or leave it.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Analyzing sermons as a type of writing, McKenzie uses fiction writing as a template to engage hearers and writers alike