Preaching, and the discipline of preaching,
is at a crossroads. The changing realities of church and theological
education, the diversity of our classrooms, and our increasingly complex
community contexts leave us in search of tools to help train a rising
generation of preachers for a future whose contours are far from clear.
The questions are immense: How to support preachers in contexts that are
diverse religiously, culturally, and ethnically, both inside and
outside the church? How to help students take varied contexts seriously
as they are formed as leaders?
In Ways of the Word, a
dynamic team of master preachers brings much-needed help. Different in
race, gender, age, and tradition, both Sally A. Brown and Luke A. Powery
speak with one voice their belief that preaching is-Spirit-empowered
event: an embodied, vocalized, actively received, here-and-now witness
to the ongoing work of God in the world.
They aspire to help
students and preachers alike to reflect on a journey of learning by
doing. They aim to help preachers to become more attuned to the Spirit,
more adept in preaching's component skills, and more self-aware about
all that is at stake in proclaiming the redemptive work of God in
specific contexts.
