Overview

Based on a decade's experience of preparing ministry students to become preachers and his own experience as one of today's most gifted preachers, Doug Gay offers an imaginative, practical and inspiring guide for all who are privileged with the task of preaching. 40 short, pithy and often humorous reflections consider different aspects of the nature and practice of preaching and aim to fire the imagination, build confidence and develop creativity. It draws on a wide range of range of writers and theologians on preaching and the creative arts and incorporates voices as diverse as Stanley Hauerwas, Sam Wells and Miles Davis. Arranged in four parts, What is Preaching?, Learning to Read, Learning to Speak, Living and Preaching it includes topics such as: * Finding your voice * Naming the presence of God * Knowing your people * Preaching as nourishment * Wrestling your own blessing from the text * Choosing the best words

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9780861539963

Table of Contents

Reviews

Doug Gay opens up the art and sacrament of preaching. And he doesn't just open it, he inhabits it. This is a book that deepens the practice of language in public. -- Padraig O'Tuama This is one of the most stimulating and refreshing books on preaching that I have read in years. The book is divided into four sections: Preaching - Reading - Speaking - Living. In 40 bite-sized chapters Doug Gay provides a fast-moving feast of homiletic tapas. Years of thinking about preaching and teaching preachers are carefully distilled into a brief but substantial primer for preachers. The book teaches so many helpful lessons, delights with many well presented examples, and persuades the reader to develop a more varied preaching palette. Along the way, the author introduces the reader to some of the preachers and thinkers who have helped preachers over the years (it was great see a chapter inspired by Samuel Wells; an undervalued national treasure). Peppered with some of the best ideas about preaching, the book includes Tom Long's brilliant, and deceptively simple concepts: focus and function. Doug Gay has not written an exhaustive book on preaching but he has liberally scattered numerous highly suggestive ideas that like seeds, which if allowed to take root, might just prove to be very fruitful. If you are a preacher buy this book and read it. If you love your pastor, buy this book and give him it as a gift...worth every penny! -- John Woods * INSPIRE magazine * Gay's book of short reflections on the preacher's calling and craft is engaging and recommendable. A beatitudes-inspired baptism homily included here is delightful ('blessed are babies who cry when they need to...'); and a funeral eulogy for a close friend is profound. This is one to return to. -- David Hanson * The Reader *

Doug Gay opens up the art and sacrament of preaching. And he doesn't just open it, he inhabits it. This is a book that deepens the practice of language in public. -- Padraig O'Tuama

Author Information

DOUG GAY is a Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow and has taught preaching to ministry students for the past ten years. He is a Church of Scotland minister, has worked as a columnist for the Times, and is author of Remixing the Church (SCM) and co-author with Jonny Baker of Alternative Worship (SPCK).

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