Embody by Karoline M. Lewis
In her book, Dr. Lewis analyzes various models of leadership and offers a metaphor of the Paraclete as a framework for leading with integrity.
Must Reads is a collection of book reviews that we believe might be of interest to preachers. Many of the writers are participants in the Peer Groups or the Coaching Program, but other voices are welcome as well. If you have a book you would like to recommend or if you are interested in reviewing a book related to preaching, please email .
Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide by Leah D. Schade
Dr. Schade’s book offers tools for bridging the red-blue divide and for addressing controversial issues of public concern while building up your parishioners’ faith.
Words That Heal: Preaching Hope to Wounded Souls by Joni Sancken
Preaching with empathy for wounded souls can help with healing. Dr. Sancken introduces the term “soul wounds” and defines it as experiencing loss, brokenness, unresolved pain, and grief. She acknowledges that healing from these wounds does not happen instantaneously and that we should allow the time for the complex process of healing to unfold.
The Overshadowed Preacher by Jerusha Matsen Neal
Dr. Neal talks about her exploration of what it means to be fully human as a preacher and as a pastor. Her book exposes the “shadows” – false understandings of who we are as preachers.
Practicing the Preaching Life by David B. Ward
Dr. Ward shifts the conversation from homiletical techniques to Christian practices, or contextual virtues, that give life to preachers and to their preaching.
Ingenuity: Preaching as an Outsider by Lisa L. Thompson
In the Must Reads interview, Dr. Thompson elaborates on the challenges that black women preachers face as outsiders in the pulpit.
Simplify the Message: Multiply the Impact by Talbot Alan Davis
Veteran preachers regularly become attached to their favorite/comfortable methodologies. Davis offers both novice and old hand preachers a new point of view by which they can create and analyze sermons. The book’s balance flows from the principal of one point and its attendant bottom line.
The Preacher’s Bible Handbook, edited by O. Wesley Allen Jr.
The Preacher’s Bible Handbook, edited by O. Wesley Allen Jr., (Westminster John Knox Press, 2019) is an indispensable aid for busy preachers.
Wise Up! Four Biblical Virtues for Navigating Life by Alyce M. McKenzie
Dr. Alyce McKenzie’s new book Wise Up! Four Biblical Virtues for Navigating Life is a practical guide to living by divine Wisdom in troubled times.
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt
Haidt is a moral psychologist, which is to say that his discipline of research is not interested in answering the question of ethicists: “What is morally right and wrong?” but rather, “How do human beings (socially and psychologically) determine what is right and wrong?”
Preaching and the Human Condition: Loving God, Self, & Others by O. Wesley Allen Jr.
People are an amazing amalgamation of impulses: spiritual, social, and psychological. Good preaching recognizes this fact, and attempts to allow the Biblical texts to speak to each area of human experience.
Preaching in the Era of Trump by O. Wesley Allen, Jr.
Wes Allen offers expert guidance in the practical ethics of preaching following the election of Donald J. Trump, an ostensibly Christian person whose own behavior and speech violates so many of the moral norms we have come to expect not only of Christians but of anyone who seeks the mantle of the presidency.
