Friday, January 4, 2008
Another Preaching Book in 2008
Clint and I working on a new reading list for 2008. There are plenty of books to choose from, the problem isn't finding enough books, but choosing the right ones out of so many. With that in mind, some of you have found through the discussion of Andy Stanley's book, Communicating for a Change, that there was a real need to strengthen the preaching skills among our pastors. Would you like to study another preaching book during 2008? If so, I need recommendations from you. Michael Quicke's book, 360 Degree Preaching is quite good, and is up to date. Dr. Quicke is the Charles Koller Professor of Preaching at Northern Seminary. His book is published by Baker. What do you think?
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7 comments:
Charles, ANY book to improve our preaching is appreciated and needed. Please add at least one of these to our 2008 reading list. Thanks!
Ron
360 Degree Preaching is an excellent book and would be a good read. I think that books that help our preaching is something that we can always use. Preaching is one of the critical ways to communicate vision and therefore it is necessary to do it well especially if we truly plan to bring change to our churches.
Worth
Thanks Ron and Worth for your input. I appreciate it. Now, if we can get some others to weigh in. Anybody else want to comment?
I like books like Stanley's, "Communicating for a Change", that can be applied at any level of growth and in any church setting. Preaching is always important. Currently, my greatest need has been good materials on Small Group leadership to use in training our small group leaders. Books like "Externally Focused" and "Present Future" are good for casting vision but not neccessarily for Practical "how to" material for lay-leaders. In other words, we have some good general material-- but some clearly outlined "how to" material would be useful for me. I have found Saddleback, WillowCreek, and Serendipity to be good sources. With Small Groups being such a key element of growth beyond 200 I think it would be useful for all of us. Thanks for all your work-- Jim P.S.
Jim, Actually I found the last third of The Externally Focused Church very practical. Rusaw lists numerous examples of various externally focused ministries, and provides concrete steps for moving the church outside the walls...
My hesitation on having everyone read a small groups book is the fact that many of our churches still run Sunday School as their primary fellowship/teaching venue. Some of our churches do both. If others want to read a Small Groups book and think it would be helpful for all the LLCs we can certainly consider it.
Here are some that I would recommend:
1. Community That Is Christian, A Handbook on Small Groups, by Julie Gorman
2. The Big Book on Small Groups, by Jeffrey Arnold
3. Building a Church OF Small Groups, by Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson
4. The Cell-Driven Church, Bringing in the Harvest, by Billy Hornsby
Back to the preaching books. I am currently reading "Made to Stick" (thanks to Bill McCready's recommendation) by the Heath brothers. Awesome reading. It is a "secular" book, but it is easy to read, practical, and backed by research. I would recommend this be our "preaching book" for 2008.
the other main thing my guys struggle with is personal spiritual discipline, so anything up that alley would always be good too.
Peace.
Charles, I agree that our readings have given us a number detailed suggestions regarding a number of different topics. I was just noting that I had recalled some general discussion, but not a lot of details regarding small groups. Thanks for the suggestions you made.
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