Overview

Preaching in the Purple Zone is a resource for helping the church understand the challenges facing parish pastors, while encouraging and equipping preachers to address the vital justice issues of our time.This book provides practical instruction for navigating the hazards of prophetic preaching with tested strategies and prudent tactics grounded in biblical and theological foundations. Key to this endeavor is using a method of civil discourse called “deliberative dialogue” for finding common values among politically diverse parishioners. Unique to this book is instruction on using the sermon-dialogue-sermon process developed by the author that expands the pastor’s level of engagement on justice issues with parishioners beyond the single sermon. Preaching in the Purple Zone equips clergy to help their congregations respectfully engage in deliberation about “hot topics,” find the values that bind them together, and respond faithfully to God’s Word.

Full Product Details

Author:   Leah D. Schade, Lexington Theological Seminary
Publisher:   Rowman & Littlefield
Imprint:   Rowman & Littlefield
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 22.80cm
Weight:   0.399kg
ISBN:  

9781538119884

ISBN 10:   1538119889
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   23 April 2019
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Preaching about Controversial Justice Issues: Tracing the Contours of the Purple Zone 2 Beyond “Political”: Reframing Our Understanding of Politics and Preaching 3 Homiletical Foundations for Purple Zone Preaching 4 Five Paths of Prophetic Preaching in the Purple Zone 5 Preparing for the Sermon-Dialogue-Sermon Process 6 Preaching Sermon 1: Prophetic Invitation to Dialogue 7 Deliberative Dialogue in the Purple Zone 8 Preaching Sermon 2: Communal Prophetic Proclamation 9 Case Studies from the Purple Zone, Part 1: Immigration 10 Case Studies, Part 2: Four Journeys into the Purple Zone 11 Building Bridges in the Purple Zone: Where Do We Go from Here? Appendix A: Sample Newsletter Article Announcing Deliberative Dialogue Appendix B: Options for Planning One, Two, or Three Sessions for the Deliberative Dialogue Appendix C: “Cheat Sheet” Questions to Encourage Deliberation Notes Selected Bibliography Scripture Index Index

Reviews

This book is one of the most helpful resources to teach and learn how preachers give prophetic voices to controversial justice issues in the midst of socially and politically divided times. Based on her rich experience of preaching ministry, rigorous scholarly and scientific research, and pastoral sensibility, Dr. Schade provides the reader with practical wisdom for prophetic preaching. -- Eunjoo Kim, Iliff School of Theology In these turbulent political times, Dr. Leah Schade offers a hopeful and realistic roadmap for preaching to listeners with diverse opinions. Concrete examples for a process beyond the Sunday sermon provide opportunities for growth and healing: this is a much-needed book at a critical juncture in the Church-not just for leaders, but for the laity, as well. -- Rev. Angela Zimmann, Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Adjunct Professor of Homiletics, United Lutheran Seminary

This book is one of the most helpful resources to teach and learn how preachers give prophetic voices to controversial justice issues in the midst of socially and politically divided times. Based on her rich experience of preaching ministry, rigorous scholarly and scientific research, and pastoral sensibility, Dr. Schade provides the reader with practical wisdom for prophetic preaching. -- Eunjoo Kim, Iliff School of Theology In these turbulent political times, Dr. Leah Schade offers a hopeful and realistic roadmap for preaching to listeners with diverse opinions. Concrete examples for a process beyond the Sunday sermon provide opportunities for growth and healing: this is a much-needed book at a critical juncture in the Church-not just for leaders, but for the laity, as well. -- Rev. Angela Zimmann, Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Adjunct Professor of Homiletics, United Lutheran Seminary The past generation of scholarship in homiletics has been leading to Preaching in the Purple Zone. Field tested and theologically grounded, Schade provides a truly conversational blueprint for preachers who want to preach about difficult social justice issues with their congregations rather than simply to their congregations. In our contentious cultural moment, this book is a gift to preachers, congregations, and the world. -- Richard Voelz, Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship, Union Presbyterian Seminary

This book is one of the most helpful resources to teach and learn how preachers give prophetic voices to controversial justice issues in the midst of socially and politically divided times. Based on her rich experience of preaching ministry, rigorous scholarly and scientific research, and pastoral sensibility, Dr. Schade provides the reader with practical wisdom for prophetic preaching. -- Eunjoo Kim, Iliff School of Theology In these turbulent political times, Dr. Leah Schade offers a hopeful and realistic roadmap for preaching to listeners with diverse opinions. Concrete examples for a process beyond the Sunday sermon provide opportunities for growth and healing: this is a much-needed book at a critical juncture in the Church-not just for leaders, but for the laity, as well. -- Rev. Angela Zimmann, Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Adjunct Professor of Homiletics, United Lutheran Seminary The past generation of scholarship in homiletics has been leading to Preaching in the Purple Zone. Field tested and theologically grounded, Schade provides a truly conversational blueprint for preachers who want to preach about difficult social justice issues with their congregations rather than simply to their congregations. In our contentious cultural moment, this book is a gift to preachers, congregations, and the world. -- Richard Voelz, Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship, Union Presbyterian Seminary How can preachers engage diverse congregations in difficult moral conversations that often have political implications? And how can preachers preach sermons that capture the complexities of those conversations while nudging participants forward toward new and better moral understandings and social commitments? These are the core questions answered in this well-researched, clearly-written, and wise book. Strongly recommended. -- John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School There's nothing sophomoric about Leah Schade's sophomore contribution in homiletics. Drawing its wisdom from her preaching, classroom, and community activism expertise, Preaching in the Purple Zone refreshingly offers controversy-averse pastors a quantitatively researched, timely guide for decentering the progressive versus conservative (idolatry of perspective) battle in theologically constructive ways. Schade's skill building `five paths' preaching methodology invites preachers into prophetically conscious sermon preparation and urges them to reconceive preaching as a biblical, theological, co-creative task-one that shifts preaching's objective from, as she rightly puts it, `simply opening minds and hearts, to moving hands and feet in tangible ways.' -- Kenyatta R. Gilbert, professor of homiletics, Howard University School of Divinity Leah D. Schade has dedicated herself as a pastor and theologian to bringing the social gospel of Christianity into congregational dialogue, and she is realistic about doing so in our polarizing and messy culture. With her commanding knowledge of homiletic literature and years of experience as a Lutheran pastor, and having surveyed over 1200 preachers and done training with the National Issues Forum, Schade presents a comprehensive sermon-dialogue-sermon process that can bring a congregation into respectful learning and a more consequential practice of relevant discipleship. I plan to use this book as a peer-learning resource for Roman Catholic preachers who value Catholic social teaching but seriously wonder how to preach on potentially threatening issues such as racism or health care at the end of life. -- Gregory Heille, professor of preaching and evangelization, Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis

Author Information

Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is assistant professor of preaching and worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky. She is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America with, twenty years of experience. She has pastored three different Pennsylvania churches, in suburban, urban and rural settings with members spanning the red-blue political spectrum. Leah earned both her MDiv and PhD degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and is author of the book Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology and the Pulpit (Chalice Press, 2015). She has been an activist for environmental justice issues for over a decade.

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