Review: “How Sermons Work”
How Sermons Work
David P. Murray
Evangelical Press, 2011, 160pp., paperback, £5.99
ISBN 978-085234-748-5
With his customary clarity and precision of style and structure, David Murray provides us with a preacher’s toolbox – not a full pastoral theology per se but rather a practical homiletical help. As a toolbox, it is well stocked with just the kind of instruments and tools that a preacher needs in order to construct a well-ordered, well-balanced, well-directed sermon. But, as Murray would acknowledge, this is not a mechanistic process, and so the apprentice preacher must learn to select and employ his tools wisely and well through diligent practice and in prayerful dependence on the Spirit. As such, anyone who preaches and teaches would do well to take up Murray’s toolbox with a view to learning the use of the tools; the well-practiced preacher might readily survey the collection to see whether he has mislaid or neglected any of the tools of his trade; the sermon-hearer will learn some of what lies behind the hour of ministry he hears in the Sunday services. The proper use of this little book would be of genuine benefit to preachers and their congregations.
All pastoral theology reviews can be viewed here.
David’s book also benefits from a superb video trailer:
[...] preachers: men whom you can trust, and who know their sermonic onions. There is a crisp review here which is worth reading. So why am I reviewing it? Because I have probably read this book in a [...]
Book Review: How Sermons Work | adaysmarch
Friday 3 February 2012 at 21:40