Book Review: Guide to Preaching and Leading Worship

Information about the book

A Guide to Preaching and Leading Worship by William H. Willimon.  Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, 2008 (Previously published in 1984)

Summary

Quoting the introduction, "This handbook is a practical guide to enable you to be an effective preacher and liturgist.  Too much is at stake in the life of the church for us pastors to be anything less than competent committed, and well-informed "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. (1 Cor. 4:1).  Topics included are planning the service, public prayer, sacraments, and preaching.

Impressions

I purchased the book to be used as a reading for a CLM class I am leading.  The session where we'll discuss this book is one centered around planning worship, so I hope it will be a help for them.  It is focused on being the pastor, with the assumption that pastors are clergy.  My CLM students may (or may not) be assigned as "pastors" to churches, so I hope they can see the information around the bias toward it being for clergy.

I do think it provides good information regarding the planning of worship and preaching.  I am especially impressed with the emphasis on evaluation and how to go about change.  I especially like the chapter on prayer, and think it will be helpful to the CLM students.  I like the emphasis on using lectionary readings for biblically-based sermons.

I did find some of the Bishop's proclamations about worship to be - pardon me - not up to date. For example, the rule that scripture should be read only from a bound book, with no modern paraphrasing seems out of step with modern worship where young people bring their phones to the lectern to read.  I'm not sure he would find the Common English Bible to be appropriate (at least not when this was written).  The idea that preaching is the realm of the pastor (only) - and I may be misunderstanding him in this - seems to exclude lay activity - although I love the statement that lay people should be included in planning and implementation of worship and should be well trained.

Reading Critically

On the opening evening of our CLM class, I shared some thoughts with the students regarding how to read the material we will be working through.  I think it applies to all of us.  As we read or listen, we should practice critical thinking.  This doesn’t mean thinking that criticizes, but instead thinking that involves being open-minded - using judgement and discipline to process what we are learning about without letting our own personal bias or opinion detract from the arguments. 

 

In other words, be open minded – one thought is that is we read or hear something we don’t agree with, apply Wesley’s quadrilateral – analyze it in the light of Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.

 

For example, I was reading one of the books we are using in class, and the author suggested that all reading during worship should be done from a well bound, hard back Bible.  I don’t want to just dismiss something I disagree with, so I stopped to think about it.    That’s not a biblical command.  It probably does apply to the author’s tradition, but maybe not to mine.  I often see younger people reading in church from their iPhones.  My reason tells me that is an adaption to the modern culture, and my experience with the Holy Spirit tells me that it is more loving to be inclusive than exclusive – why criticize what people read from in church when the loving action is to be grateful for the sharing of the scripture. 

 

Don’t dismiss something just because you disagree with it, but also don’t accept what you read as rules that must not be broken.  Read critically.