Power in the Pulpit

Purchased the text for a course in our district school of ministry. Only a small percentage of us young (new) preachers have the opportunity or a ability to sit at the feet of preachers of this caliber. Fewer still can glean from their earnest sharing of their preparation from kernel to message. This book is not the cold technical manual of some other preaching texts but,don't miss the power found in the details of preparation and delivery. There is a sharing of this human experience and the wrestling with God to minister a word that is from him in due season. Rev. William D.Watley wrote, "In my experience,most sermons, while having the Holy Spirit as their ultimate source, come to us as seed or as spark or as sperm in the midst of our own work and warfare,struggles and strife,agony and anxieties,experiences and ecstasies,fallings and risings,stumbling and recoveries,and require some participation and input from us to produce a finished product." I only wish that for a few more dollars there was also a CD to hear the printed messages since preaching in general,and black preaching in particular, is an aural experience

I have read fifteen books on preaching in the first six months of 2005. Having read them, if I could choose just one that helped me most as a preacher, it is this text. We hear from some of the best Black preachers in America - how they preach and a sample sermon of each. You sit at the feet of masters. I am a minister - white - who gained tremendously from these giants in our pulpits.

Power In The Pulpit is a must read for any pastor, seminary student or lay speaker. Cleophus J. Larue highlights some of the best women and men preachers in the African American preaching Community. These people of faith boldly bring the reader into the most intimate acts of their personal worship: sermon preparation. Each preacher shares their weekly routine and the hours upon hours that she/he spends in preparing to preach the word to their congregations. These processes are so detailed that the reader experiences the sermon development along with the preacher. After laboring with each preacher, the actual sermon text then follows for the reader to enjoy the final manuscript. The only thing missing from this book would be the impossible--the hearing of the word in the actual congregations. If you want to be an excellent preacher instead of a good preacher, read Power In The Pulpit!

This book pulls together advice from some of Americas foremost African American preachers. Each one has a style of her/his own when working with the word of God developing sermons. They share their own methods which can be useful to anyone who is preaching. For a new preacher such as myself, some of their ways of engaging Scripture is helpful. Their methods are not elaborate, but in depth. I found it particularly insightful reading Prathia L. Hall's contribution around Mark 5:21-43. It is encouraging to find that a passage has the potential to stimulate more than one sermon and continue to develop.

This is an awesome book dedicated to God's great gift of Black preaching. It includes interviews with great Black preachers who discuss their unique ways in preparing to preach the word. It's like being able to pull up a chair and sit next to them over coffee as they prepare. It even includes a sermon by each; I just wish that they were in audio form so that we could hear them! This book is a great tool to show beginning preachers like me how you must work with God to develop your own personal preaching style. Too many of us don't properly prepare and try to mimic preaching styles?!? The world is in too much trouble for us to deliver a fake unprepared Word!