Choosing to Preach...Continued from page 2

Declarative sermon ? Make an argument

Pragmatic sermon ? Solve a mystery

Narrative sermon ? Tell a story

Visionary sermon ? Paint a picture

Integrative sermon ? Sing a song

Choosing to Preach is a well-written book filled with practical insights and helpful resources. Anderson makes his case well that effective biblical preaching can take a variety of forms, and his role as tour guide through the various models will be most helpful to preachers seeking to understand today’s homiletical landscape.

If there is any point at which I disagree with Anderson, it would be on the issue which frames the title to his book: can one simply choose to preach or is a divine call imperative to assuming the task? If I understand Anderson correctly, he discounts the notion of a “call” to preach, arguing that the pulpit need not be “a kind of holy ground accessible only to those specially licensed for the task.”

Though he acknowledges that in his own life “before I ever chose to preach, I was chosen for it,” he seems to assert that the call to preach is a call that extends to all believers: “We may not all be professionals, paid to preach from pulpits, but if we are in Christ, we are called to preach in some capacity. In a small group, at a youth gathering, or even at the coffee shop, we can always find people who need us to love them. There will always be those to whom we’re called to preach.” It seem sto me that here Anderson merges preaching with evangelistic witness and Christian compassion, muddling the picture and neglecting the uniqueness of the divine call to preach.

Despite that point of disagreement, I found Choosing to Preach to be an enjoyable and useful resource that will find a welcome place on any preacher’s bookshelf.

(Anderson is dean of Northwest Baptist Seminary and associate professor of homiletics of the Associated Canadian Theological Schools (ACTS) of Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. He is also a past president of the Evangelical Homiletics Society.)