Richard Jensen

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  Preaching Marks Gospel

  $18.95

  In a classic case of failing to see the forest for the trees, Jensen, a homiletics professor and author of two works on narrative preaching, says that preachers tend to analyze biblical books to glean the slightest bits of exegetical data, yet miss the thrust of the overarching story they try to convey. Jensen contends that preachers get too caught up in an analytical, left-brained mentality that obscures the power and meaning of the good news story.

  In these pages Jensen helps us approach Mark’s gospel with eyes wide open rather than with microscope in hand. He treats Mark’s gospel as a narrative whole and challenges preachers to tell the gospel’s story to their congregations. In doing so, Jensen emphasizes the strength of biblical stories. He says that these stories are powerful in and of themselves, that they work without much explanatory help. The problem is that listeners never hear the entire story, because it’s always told to them in bits and pieces.

  Jensen’s adaptation of what Robert Alter (author of The Art of Biblical Narrative) calls narrative analogy assumes that “… parallel acts or situations are used to comment on each other in biblical narrative.” In other words, if Mark told story “B” to flesh out the reality of story “A,” then perhaps preachers today can do the same thing in their preaching. Students of Jensen have enthusiastically embraced this approach: “This is great, we never get to hear them (stories) whole!” How did it ever occur to us that we could improve on the story of the Prodigal Son, for example, by reducing it to ideas?

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  Preaching Matthews Gospel

  $22.95

  Jensen’s research and insights provide a stimulating resource on Matthew’s Gospel. Jensen provides “Homiletical Directions” at the end of each chapter that will help the preacher find a focus and locate themes for preaching the text. Jensen points to the ways in which the biblical writers lock their stories together with other stories in order to give fuller meaning to their narratives. He covers material that is not included in the assigned lectionary texts and discusses the inter-relatedness of Matthew’s stories. These “narrative analogies” imply that preaching on Matthew’s Gospel may at times be a retelling of two or more Matthean stories.

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  Thinking In Story

  $13.95

  We are living on the boundary between the print and electronic era. Richard A. Jensen says that as we move into the electronic world, we must seriously rethink most of what we do. This book calls us to reinvestigate preaching in our time.

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  Preaching Lukes Gospel

  $24.95

  Preachers and Bible teachers will find this book helpful in guiding them to be biblical storytellers. Testimonies to the value of Dr. Richard Jensen’s book have been numerous and include the following:

  Rather than preach about the biblical text one is encouraged and equipped to proclaim the biblical narrative. His book is refreshingly practical and biblical. It stimulates biblical preaching, preparation and proclamation. The preacher is moved from telling a story to telling the story.
  Pastor Paul Gunsten
  St. Philip Lutheran Church
  Roanoke, Virginia

  I really appreciate the direction each chapter opens for possible preaching emphasis. I thought the first few chapters might just be flukes … but each succeeding one holds its own. Thanks!
  Pastor William Lawson
  Trinity Lutheran Church
  Green Bay, Wisconsin

  Through a process of “narrative analogy” Dr. Jensen shows how the stories in the appointed texts of the Revised Common Lectionary relate to the other stories in Luke/Acts. In so doing, he opens up new discoveries for preaching.

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