James Nieman

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  Knowing The Context

  $18.00

  While everyone might affirm that preaching needs to engage its listeners deeply, the initial move for novice preachers is to think this can be attained by livelier content and delivery of the sermon. All too quickly, however, one learns that there are many factors beyond what a preacher says and how she or he may say it that affect whether proclamation can actually be heard. Effective preaching requires the complex work of knowing the context in which preaching occurs, while avoiding the twin dangers of pandering to a situation’s particulars or generalizing them into stereotypes. Knowing the Context reveals how to engage contexts for preaching, especially ways to examine contexts more responsibly, so that the sermon might more amply bring the word of Scripture to bear on the worlds and lives of listeners.

  In one of the initial titles in the Elements of Preaching series, James Nieman shows how preaching is oriented to specific locales, cultural situations, audiences, and occasions. Unlike other books that tell preachers how to preach to specific audiences, Knowing the Context helps readers analyze the situations in which they find themselves and shows how text and context are in a continuing dialogue and how to tailor sermons to their context. Keyed to online sermon samples and other Web-based features to enhance teaching.

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  Preaching To Every Pew

  $24.00

  The growing cultural diversity of American society is mirrored in the pews and parishes of mainline denominations and represents a dynamic challenge to the effective proclamation of the gospel on Sunday mornings. Preaching to Every Pew, based on extensive field research, takes on the challenge of preaching in such a context. The authors map an approach to culture from four signifigant perspectives: ethnicity, class, displacement, and religious beliefs. They describe the signifigant ways in which culture influences human beings, detail how cultural influences affect and complicate communication in general and preaching in particular, and then recommend practical strategies for improving communication in culturally diverse settings. Preaching to Every Pew is an invaluable aid to pastors and seminaries yearning for more effective ways to proclaim the gospel.

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