Preaching

Fred Craddock is a marvelous preacher. Having re-invented the preaching wheel in the 1970's and done so quite successfully, he turns his experience into a great book on "Preaching." This is the work of a master homiletician. Craddock's book has been on my shelf for years and there is not a week that goes by when I don't look something up in it. Perhaps the only book better for preachers is Thomas Long's book on the "Witness of Preaching." And this is arguable...An outstanding asset for the seminarian who is just learning how to put a sermon together, or for the experienced pastor who knows all too well how to put a sermon together, but perhaps needs a reminder or a refresher. This is one of those must have books!!

"Preaching" is one of the first books on homiletics (Preaching) that I read. I was moved to reconsider everything about my preaching - from my study to the organization of the sermon to the delivery. "Preaching" is an excellent book for the beginner or the seasoned preacher/teacher. It offers cogent advice in how to study, how to develop the sermon plot, and even how to communicate the sermon so listeners will tune in and not out. Like all of Craddock's books, this one is filled with memorable quotes. Here is one of them: "The first thing to be sacrificed to an overload of duties and activities is time for thinking. As a result, we have more intelligent sermons than wise ones." Wouldn't this describe a number of sermons you have heard (or even preached?). I give this book five stars and recommend it for anyone who wants to preach or teach, and for anyone who appreciates a writer who is unmatched in his skill at written communication.

This is an excellent basic text on preaching. Although I am not yet a preacher and am just getting ready to enter seminary, I can't imagine a more comprehensive book on the subject. I expected Craddock to beat the drum for his favorite style of sermon, the inductive, but surprisingly this is not even mentioned. For more info on the inductive style, I would refer the reader to "As One Without Authority". Especially valuable are the sections concerning the pastor's study habits, and how time spent in study is actually time spent with the congregation. Craddock is acknowleged as one of the greatest preachers of his generation, and this is an excellent way to learn from the "master".

I am a seminary student, as I am sure many of those reading this review are, or where. You know the assigned reading requirements, and you know about how much of the required reading you actually complete. With that in mind, let me say that this is the only text this semester I have not set aside, or failed to read, it is that valuable. Dr. Craddock gives a sound theology of preaching, explains method in an easy to follow manner and gives the simple, practical, information so frequently missing from classroom discussions.

From the Introduction where Dr. Craddock promises to walk the reader through the process of selecting a text to the delivery of the sermon... to the chapters of enriching the form and delivering the sermon - he delivers the goods! I doubt that anyone other than Fred Craddock could claim to have been mentor and role model to as many other preacher-teachers, like, Barbara Brown Taylor, Joanna Adams, John Claypool, Gail O'Day, and Thomas Long. From his emphasis on theological content to creative imagination ...Dr. Craddock spices up his serious language with such pithy phrases as, "A quiet voice through a cabin door, President Lincoln says we're free," is no less a shout than 76 trombones coming down Main Street on the Fourth of July!He allows to creep into his sermon, the humor of a nearby seated passenger on their flight from St. Louis to Seattle who became ill and went outside for a breath of fresh air. The response comes back, "But that didn't really happen. Did It?"Allegorically, the words from Genesis, "and Abram went out from Ur of the Chaldees," could be interpreted, "and the soul left the confines of the body." The first time I heard Craddock, he gave his version of the earliest Black tradition of The Creation Story. He stirred my creative imagination! Just like I get to every Seminar on Style and Form, when he is on at Cherrylog Christian Church, I love to hear his latest presentation... Nowhere else can you read this but in his Preaching!