How to Preach Narrative

by Jeffrey D. Arthurs

Expository preachers pay attention not only to content, but also to form. They strive to say what the text says as well as how it says it. The main formal features of narrative are plot, character, setting, and point of view. In Part One of this book, Arthurs treats each formal feature in its own chapter, exploring the literary artistry and rhetorical effects that biblical narrators generated. In Part Two, Arthurs demonstrates how to reproduce these rhetorical effects in sermons. The reader will encounter six strategies, explained and illustrated, to preach in ways that bring to life the formal features of narrative texts of Scripture. Two sample sermons with commentary illustrate the strategies and provide a model for preaching narrative in an engaging and effective manner.

192 pages, Paperback

Published September 14, 2022

About the author

Jeffrey D. Arthurs (Ph.D., Purdue University) is professor of preaching and communication and dean of the chapel at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, S. Hamilton, Mass.

Reviews

[Bruce Coats]

Something New

Arthurs offers something new, a roadmap with both information about narrative as well as methodological suggestions for developing narrative. While making use of traditional narrative structures (sufficient for most preaching occasions), the reader is offered both research-based, as well as original suggestions for how each narrative element influences choices in preaching. Certainly others have taught us many things about preaching narrative, Arthurs offers additional insight worthy of reading by all who wish to preach The Story!