"Preaching in a New Key" (Mark R. Glanville)

TITLE: Preaching in a New Key: Crafting Expository Sermons in Post-Christian Communities
AUTHOR: Mark R. Glanville
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2025, (240 pages)
 

Our audiences are changing. Culture is shifting. So too are people's expectations. While we should not follow worldly ways, preachers must be aware of new cultural attitudes and changing paradigms. Expository preaching is needed but it needs to be adjusted in a manner that connects with modern listeners. Australian-Canadian pastor and author Mark Glanville helps us contextualize our message sensitively to changing cultural movements. Trained in Haddon Robinson's Big-Idea Preaching and updated with Graham Johnson and Tim Keller's apologetic approaches, Glanville feels that expository preaching needs to move with changing times. A paradigm shift is needed for a post-Christian culture. Our preaching strategies need to change simply because our audiences are changing. This itself is not a new idea. This book casts fresh light on expository preaching for a new post-Christian generation. Glanville intends this book to be an introductory textbook for new preachers and a "recalibration" for experienced ones. His thesis is this: Expository preaching needs to form communities that will participate in God's big redemption plan to bring healing and hope to the communities we are in.

The author divides the book into four parts. Part One is "Deeper" which examines the preacher's emotional health, the Church's, and the cultural Context. The chapter on the "Deeper Self" is particularly illuminating as Glanville talks about the meaning and consequences of preaching from a "defended self." If we do not manage that wall of defensiveness, we might preach a great message but miss out on connecting with our listeners. We learn about the importance of the five foundational needs of the preacher and the need to take care of the preacher's soul. His "hermeneutic of witnessing community" adds a unique perspective on expository preaching. In context, his story about Kate who left the faith, presents a new face of doubt, something that preachers should be aware of. Such doubts are not simply about disbelief and rationality but about "plausibility and values." Instead of addressing doubt directly, he suggests we preach from the angle of Christ's wisdom, the beauty of Scripture, and how God can respond to the complexities of life. Sermons ought to be preached to inculcate hope, connect with the curiosity of the listeners, and contextualize the message.

Part Two deals with CRAFT, and the art of creating a compelling sermon. Here, Glanville guides us through the nitty-gritty of sermon preparation. We learn about the movements, from exegetical ideas to sermon structure, aesthetics, and delivery. He gives us eight practices for honing the craft, eight "licks" to write the content, how to launch the sermon, using illustrations and stories, and the conclusion. Other gems include artistic delivery of sermons, feeling the emotions of Christ and the audience, using the five-word strategies, delivery preparation, learning from master communicators, and using a preaching sketchpad.

Part Three looks at TRADITION so that we understand the roots of rich history and lessons learned. He guides us through the four themes of the foundations of preaching: Biblical Story, Biblical Ethics, Gospel, and Witness. He goes on to describe some ways to exegete and interpret the text with the hindsight of tradition. With clear pointers and rational flow, we prepare the sermon with an eye on developing "intercultural competence."

Part Four covers BEAUTY, where the author looks at the aesthetics in preaching. Not many books on preaching cover this portion that activates the right side of the brain. We are challenged to develop all of our five senses through creative storytelling. We consider our preaching postures that come from breaking out of the limitations of our deeper self. Using his musical talent and background, we are blessed to see music as a creative metaphor for the sermon. We learn about preaching justice and violence from the Old Testament, and how the people of God were shaped in the past.

Finally, he concludes with a few appendixes that contain useful tips on preaching on a theme, short texts, and discussions on vocation issues.

My Thoughts

What struck me at first was Glanville's take on how Haddon Robinson's Big-Idea Preaching was written for the late President Jimmy Carter's era. Even though he acknowledges some practical relevance for Robinson's method, there might be an unwitting dismissal of the method altogether. To a lesser degree, he does the same for the Graham Johnsons and Tim Kellers. I am sure Glanville does not mean to, but how it was presented appears to diminish its suitability in contemporary Western culture. Many authors tend to do that in the run-up to their theses. Most likely, it is more about distinguishing their ideas from the rest of the pack instead of belittling past contributions. Therefore, I would give the author the benefit of the doubt. Many preachers have trained diligently and passionately under both Robinson and Keller. Even today, seminaries continue to use their materials in their courses. The best way to use this book is to enrich our preaching armour with Glanville's. That is why I believe we should continue to learn from preachers both past and present. The main reason is because of an increasingly complex and diverse audiences in the Church. From multicultural to intergenerational communities, we are better served with an understanding of the different methods of preaching and delivery styles. Glanville supports that by proving to us with a whole section on the need to learn, trust, and exegete our traditions.

How then do we use this book? My short answer is to use it as a supplement to accompany the wealth of preaching resources we now have. My longer answer is to use it as a tool to re-calibrate our approaches to preaching in a new era. Such an adjustment is necessary as the Church adapts to a new world, a largely post-Christian world. In the West, this is necessary as we face the challenges of atheism, secularism, and widespread idolatry of all kinds. Glanville gives us a new lens to understand the expectations of an upcoming generation that is less interested in apologetics or affirmations of faith statements but more concerned about authentic experiences, emotional connections, and hopeful living. That does not mean we jettison the past methods in favour of the new. It simply means building upon the foundations we have with these new perspectives. Like how the temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt with elevated layers upon layers, Glanville's lens is better used when standing upon past foundations.
 
He is spot on when talking about the importance to move away from "overly individualistic" approaches of the past. This is difficult because of the largely individualistic environment we live in. I suppose baby steps can be reason enough to celebrate. This calls for a deeper commitment to the communities we are in. As we deal with the challenges of a post-covid era that includes infrequent physical meetings and distant interactions, building communities might be one of the hardest to achieve. This is made more challenging as lesser people gravitate toward face-to-face meetings and more preferring online interactions. How then do we be embodied people in an increasingly disembodying social media and online environment? How do we connect more authentically with people online? How are we to build communities in a technologically diverse environment? These questions tell us that we need to keep learning and to keep improving our approaches. This book is thus a start to spur this ongoing discussion.

Mark R. Glanville (PhD, Bristol University) is associate professor of pastoral theology at Regent College, Vancouver, and an Old Testament scholar. He is the author of Adopting the Stranger as Kindred in Deuteronomy and Freed to Be God's Family: The Book of Exodus.

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of IVP Academic via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.