Book Review: From Pew to Pulpit

 

Information about the book

Clifton F. Guthrie.  From Pew to Pulpit: A Beginner's Guide to Preaching.  Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 2005.  (Cokesbury/Amazon)

Summary

The book is written to provide guidance for lay persons to who are venturing, as the title says, from pew to pulpit in order to preach.  From Amazon:  "Written with the needs of those for whom preaching is not their sole or primary occupation in mind, it begins by emphasizing what every preacher brings to the pulpit: an idea of what makes a sermon particularly moving or memorable to them. From there the book moves into short chapters on choosing an appropriate biblical text or sermon topic, learning how to listen to one's first impressions of what a text means, moving from text or topic to the sermon itself while keeping the listeners needs firmly in mind, making thorough and engaging use of stories in the sermon, and delivering with passion and conviction. The book concludes with helpful suggestions for resources, including Bibles, commentaries, other print resources and websites."

Impressions

As the Summary describes, this is a practical book that leads a lay person through a process of developing, delivering, and evaluating a sermon.  I found it to be encouraging to lay person, respecting their gifts and experiences.  The bulk of the book outlines steps to take to develop a sermon from a scripture reference.  I especially liked its approach to study of scripture and the author's on focusing on a message.  I used the book as one of the texts for our Conference CLM Course.

Posts about book

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