Review & Expositor

This introductory essay by the issue editor recounts a personal narrative of someone who did not go into the family business. In this article, the minister/professor reports briefly from service in a wide variety of church settings. The contexts include rural settings in Tennessee and Kentucky, a small town in Tennessee, urban Manhattan, a suburb in Kentucky, and finally a county seat church in a large metropolitan area in Georgia. This minster went from hayfields in Kentucky to skyscrapers in New York. It became imperative to learn new cultural languages in very different sociological settings requiring growth and change. The author shares insights about preaching, sometimes learned the hard way. The article includes anecdotes, some mildly embarrassing and candid, accounts of beneficial interaction with good classes in homiletics along the way, as well as evidence of the influence of exemplary preaching models.

Proclamation is a form of oral communication. Learning how to communicate effectively is rooted primarily in the dynamics of listening, as opposed to the act of speaking. If a preacher can discover a church's homiletical inclinations, he or she can translate the Word of God into a “language” that a congregation fully comprehends.

Jesus' words, actions, and teaching methods were in keeping with the customs, tradition, and religion of the Semitic culture into which Jesus was born. One area of Christian study where the Jewish roots of Jesus get routinely passed over is the area of homiletics. What happens when the study of rabbinics enters into conversation with the study of homiletics? Is there an effective Hebraic style or approach to preaching? This article contends that, in fact, that seven characteristics or “marks” subtly differentiate the preacher with a Hebraic style.

Aristotle believed that the trio of logos, ethos, and pathos was interconnected in effective communication. If one of the elements of speaking, logos, pathos, or ethos, can be identified as a source that has more weight than the others as it relates to preaching, preachers will be empowered to learn and gain from the study. After observing the effects of a contrast in the ethos of a senior and a junior minister as perceived by their shared congregation, the author undertook a study that demonstrated: (a) that ethos is arguably the most effective aspect of communication among Aristotle's triad and (b) that the most significant aspect of ethos is the importance of the audience's familiarity with the speaker.

This article summarizes a visioning process for a local church in which preaching parables was the primary element. The visioning process began with a series of readiness exercises including study, prayer triplet groups, formation of a vision team, sharing of the church's heritage, and creating urgency for seeking God's vision. Results of the visioning process were statements of mission, core values, vision story, and vision paths for the church. The role of preaching the parables is examined as a pivotal component to the visioning process. The article concludes with thoughts on the impact of preaching for vision.