{"title":"Now \u0026 Next program","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"weary-throats-and-new-songs-black-women-proclaiming-gods-word","title":"Weary Throats and New Songs: Black Women Proclaiming God's Word","description":"Examines the rich heritage of African American women who have proclaimed--and still proclaim--God's word. Against all odds, African American women have passionately proclaimed the goodness of God and lifted up Jesus' name despite barriers of race, class, denomination, education and gender. In response to a sense of deliverance from evil and in gratitude for answered prayers, these women have related their faith and trust in God in sacred places such as ships, fields, homes, barns, factories, hospitals, schools, pulpits, missionary societies, and over kitchen sinks. Even when disenfranchised in the religious communities they helped create, African American women continue to \"say a word\" about God, whether they are ordained or not. This book provides a brief review of the rich heritage of African American female proclaimers and examines contemporary African American women's sermon preparation, content, delivery, and personhood. Brown draws heavily on interviews and conversations, as well as audio and video tapes of women proclaiming God's word, to relate how and why African American women tell others about God despite resistance (weary throats) and with the help of support (new songs) in religious and social communities.","brand":"Abingdon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529052852397,"sku":"9780687030132","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_4a67ea05-29dd-44a4-aca4-76e2d01207c5.jpg?v=1790183953"},{"product_id":"exodus-preaching-crafting-sermons-about-justice-and-hope","title":"Exodus Preaching: Crafting Sermons about Justice and Hope","description":"Exodus Preaching is the first of its kind. It is an exploration of the African American prophetic rhetorical traditions in a manner that makes features of these traditions relevant to a broad audience beyond the African American traditions. It provides readers a composite picture of the nature, meaning, and relevance of prophetic preaching as spoken Word of justice and hope in a society of growing pluralism and the world-shaping phenomenon of racial, economic and cultural diversity. African American preachers have distinctively invested great symbolic significance in the Exodus story, the messianic witness of Jesus, and the prophetic literature for developing and shaping prophetic sermons. Kenyatta Gilbert demonstrates how four distinctive features of discourse can shape sermon preparation, for effective preaching in a period of intense social change, racial unrest, and violence. Gilbert includes dozens of practical suggestions and five practical exercises to equip the reader for preaching in new ways and in new environments. He offers an holistic approach, fully equipping the reader with the theological and practical resources needed to preach prophetically.","brand":"Abingdon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529052917933,"sku":"9781501832574","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_8f05b8de-4ae7-42cc-888e-5809c1843ea3.jpg?v=1790183956"},{"product_id":"preaching-black-earth","title":"Preaching Black Earth","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEcowomanist wisdom for justice, faith, and the flourishing of humanity and the earth.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreaching Black Earth is a groundbreaking collection of sermons, meditations, poems, and interviews that illuminates the powerful intersections of environmental justice, racial justice, and faith. With contributions from Bible scholars, pastors, ecowomanist thinkers, and political activists, this volume offers a profound exploration of how Black and ally communities can craft new theologies to confront the urgent challenges of climate change.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe sermons, thoughtfully composed by those living out an earth-honoring faith, call readers to engage in environmental justice through everyday practices. The poetry inspires with its messages of cherishing the earth amid environmental crisis, serving not only as a source of hope but also as a model of contemplative writing practices that can be used as teaching tools in the classroom. The meditations and interviews foster creativity and renew the passion for justice among those committed to the intertwined struggles for earth and social equity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis volume highlights the disproportionate impact of environmental degradation on communities of color, where landfills, toxic waste sites, and other forms of pollution often encroach on Black and Indigenous neighborhoods. It showcases the historic connection between Black preaching traditions, activism, and stewardship of the land, as well as the ecowomanist focus on the interrelatedness of injustices. By centering the voices, wisdom, and methods of women of African descent, Preaching Black Earth offers readers an interdisciplinary, intersectional framework for understanding environmental ethics and promoting social and environmental justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhether you are an educator, faith leader, activist, or seeker, Preaching Black Earth is an essential resource that equips communities to navigate the intersection of environmental justice, faith, and activism, ensuring that both humanity and the earth not only endure but thrive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContributors and conversation partners include Stacey Abrams, Sofia Betancourt, Heber Brown III, Christopher Carter, Elonda Clay, Katie Commons, Frances Roberts Gregory, Frederick Douglas Haynes III, John W. Kinney, Otis Moss III, Kenneth Ngwa, Liv Parson, Larry Rasmussen, and Gina M. Stewart.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Westminster John Knox Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529053016237,"sku":"9780664268367","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"rhythm-and-algorithm-preaching-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence","title":"Rhythm and Algorithm: Preaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eRhythm and Algorithm: Preaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence\u003c\/i\u003e argues that preaching today unfolds within systems designed to sort, predict, and monetize human attention. In an era shaped by digital platforms, surveillance capitalism, and algorithmic control, what becomes of the sermon--and what becomes of the soul?\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing from Black homiletics, political economy, womanist theology, and sound studies, Mark Andrew Jefferson argues that preaching is more than just speech; it is an embodied rhythm involving breath, cadence, testimony, and communal timing that challenges enclosure. Tracing a genealogy from the Black cathedral and homiletic canon to kitchens, storefronts, hush harbors, digital platforms, and eucharistic tables, Jefferson shows how respectability, uplift, and optimization disciplined preaching long before artificial intelligence appeared.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgainst these forces, the book names rhythm as a counterpractice: Spirit-led improvisation that refuses predictability and restores human depth. Rather than rejecting technology, \u003ci\u003eRhythm and Algorithm\u003c\/i\u003e calls preachers and theologians to discern how the Spirit moves within--and against--systems of control, glitching the empire's speech and gathering communities in shared breath.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a book for preachers, scholars, and students seeking faithful proclamation in a world governed by code.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wipf \u0026 Stock Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529053147309,"sku":"9781666776546","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_f3a0d11a-d7a7-4b40-93d9-32be20c53503.jpg?v=1790183963"},{"product_id":"the-witness-of-preaching-third-edition","title":"The Witness of Preaching, Third Edition","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a newly revised edition of one of the standard introductory preaching textbooks on the market today. Beginning with a solid theological basis, veteran preacher and best-selling author Thomas G. Long offers a practical, step-by-step guide to writing a sermon. Long centers his approach around the biblical concept of witness. To be a preacher, Long posits, is to be a witness to God's work in the worldone who sees before speaking, one whose task is to \"tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about what is seen.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis updated edition freshens up language and anecdotes, contains an extensive new analysis of the use of multimedia and its impact on preaching, and adds a completely new chapter on plagiarism in preaching. Included for the first time are four complete sermons, with Long's commentary and analysis. The sermons were written and originally preached by Barbara Brown Taylor, Cleophus J. LaRue. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, and Edmund Steimle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith this third edition, \u003ci\u003eThe Witness of Preaching\u003c\/i\u003e reaffirms itself as the essential resource for seminary students as well as new and experienced preachers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Westminster John Knox Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529053311149,"sku":"9780664261429","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_a4c0cb1f-557e-43ed-96ef-d13c387e2f22.jpg?v=1790183965"},{"product_id":"is-it-a-sermon-art-activism-and-genre-fluidity-in-african-american-preaching","title":"Is It a Sermon?: Art, Activism, and Genre Fluidity in African American Preaching","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eIs It a Sermon?\u003c\/em\u003e is an informative and daring call to blur the boundaries of the sermon genre, exploring the \"shoreline\" of homiletics, or the place where preaching laps up against other modes of discourse. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this book, Donyelle McCray explores how preaching merges with prayer, song, performance, and activism--the gospel dancing in and out of the forms we create for it. Consider the sermonic performance of Isaiah walking naked and barefoot for three years, the deaconess whose morning prayer rhythmically flows into sermon, or the gospel soloist who pauses in her song to tell a story or break into a sermonette. McCray is interested in the possibilities that emerge when we play at the shoreline, and she questions what modes of preaching get overlooked due to genre classifications. She seeks to discover what we might learn from these shoreline preachers about bearing witness, enacting Scripture, and listening to life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile these questions could be explored generally, McCray focuses on African American preachers who play at the boundaries of the sermon genre, with attention to how genre fluidity provides a means of drawing on ancestral wisdom. Key figures like Mahalia Jackson, Harriet Powers, Rosie Lee Tomkins, Thea Bowman, Howard Thurman, and Toni Morrison are examined as artists, activists, and proclaimers. She shines a new light on their work and points out how they reform preacherly identities and refuse traditional patterns of holding authority. Ultimately, in blurring the boundaries of sermon genre, this book offers readers strategies for embracing their voices more fully within and beyond the pulpit.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Westminster John Knox Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529053376685,"sku":"9780664266875","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_af060287-2024-4bd6-ba07-bf18f81ba667.jpg?v=1790183969"},{"product_id":"black-preaching","title":"Black Preaching","description":"Henry H. Mitchell has completely revised and integrated his popular books \u003ci\u003eThe Recovery of Preaching\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBlack Preaching \u003c\/i\u003efor seminarians and pastors--both Black and White--who are seeking to add power and vision to their sermons. Mitchell persuasively demonstrates that Black culture and preaching style are vital for the empowerment of Black congregations and have much to offer the preaching method of \u003ci\u003eall \u003c\/i\u003epreachers. By focusing on the use of storytelling, imagination, and style of preaching rooted in African-American culture, Mitchell spotlights effective techniques for lively preaching.","brand":"Abingdon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529053442221,"sku":"9780687036141","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_1e3402cf-7d57-49eb-9585-24166fdff4bf.jpg?v=1790183976"},{"product_id":"blue-note-preaching-in-a-post-soul-world","title":"Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Can preaching recover a Blues sensibility and dare speak with authority in the midst of tragedy? America is living stormy Monday, but the pulpit is preaching happy Sunday. The world is experiencing the Blues, and pulpiteers are dispensing excessive doses of non-prescribed prosaic sermons with severe ecclesiastical and theological side effects.\"\u003cbr\u003eâ \"from chapter 1\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUniquely gifted preacher Otis Moss III helps preachers effectively communicate hope in a desperate and difficult world in this new work based on his 2014 Yale Lyman Beecher Lectures. Moss challenges preachers to preach with a \"Blue Note sensibility,\" which speaks directly to the tragedies faced by their congregants without falling into despair. He then offers four powerful sermons that illustrate his Blue Note preaching style. In them, Moss beautifully and passionately brings to life biblical characters that speak to today's pressing issues, including race discrimination and police brutality, while maintaining a strong message of hope. Moss shows how preachers can teach their congregations to resist letting the darkness find its way into them and, instead, learn to dance in the dark.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Westminster John Knox Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529053507757,"sku":"9780664261603","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_e7aae63c-4b46-4648-93cb-dae24a1a2fce.jpg?v=1790183976"},{"product_id":"how-to-preach-a-dangerous-sermon","title":"How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon","description":"\u003cb\u003ePreaching that causes actual turnaround in the hearts and lives of hearers.\u003c\/b\u003e Learn to use four characteristics of \"preaching with moral imagination\" to proclaim freedom for all. The author describes the four characteristics using examples like Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Prathia Hall, and the Moral Monday Movement, along with musicians and other artists of today. Moral imagination helps the hearer to see what they cannot see, to hear what they cannot hear--to inhabit the lives of others, so that they can embody Christ and true freedom for those others. This book equips and empowers preachers to transcend their basic skills and techniques, so that their proclamation of the Word causes actual turnaround in the hearts and lives of their hearers, and in their communities. \"Frank Thomas has written a passionate summons: amid the current destructive chaos of our society there is an urgent need for moral imagination. Such imagination is the antithesis of \"diabolic\" and \"idolatrous\" imagination that is all to the fore in our public discourse and practice. Thomas fleshes out \"moral imagination\" with close reflection on the practice of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Before he finishes Thomas shows how the urgency of \"moral imagination\" belongs peculiarly to the work of the preacher. This book is a welcome call for gospel-grounded courage and truth about the neighbor issued in a way that refuses the self-serving fakery that dominates our public life.\" --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary \"Timely and prophetic, \u003ci\u003eHow to Preach a Dangerous Sermon\u003c\/i\u003e presents a homiletic essential for our churches today. Thomas insists that it is up to the preacher to recapture and reclaim the moral imagination of our nation so that the Gospel's message of freedom is true for all people. With attention to specific figures whose witness models the qualities and characteristics of moral imagination, Thomas inspires the preacher toward powerful proclamation that both challenges and critiques any speech that subjugates or subordinates. \u003ci\u003eHow to Preach a Dangerous Sermon\u003c\/i\u003e is must read for preachers to recover and reimagine the leadership role of the church for the sake of justice for all.\" --Karoline M. Lewis, Associate Professor of Biblical Preaching and the Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary; author of\u003ci\u003e She: Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Women in Ministry.\u003c\/i\u003e \"In this lucid and compelling book, Frank Thomas plumbs the depths of American moral rhetoric for insights that will help preachers. \u003ci\u003eHow to Preach a Dangerous Sermon\u003c\/i\u003e provides new and dramatic ways in which the moral imagination in a democratic society can be nurtured by visionary, empathic, wise, and artistic preachers.\" --John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School \"Warning: Preachers, if you are comfortable with the status quo of white privilege, patriarchy, hetero-normativity, and classism, do not read this book. If you are comfortable with sermon series that reduce the gospel to self-help acronyms, don't read this book. But if you have the courage to look honestly at our landscape and bring the moral imagination of the Christian tradition to bear on it, open these pages and your sermons may never be the same again. But then again neither will the church--or the world--be the same anymore, if enough of us follow Thomas's advice.\" --O. Wesley Allen, Jr., Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University","brand":"Abingdon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529053573293,"sku":"9781501856839","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_ec5d7bcf-1483-432f-8b9d-808f2b773496.jpg?v=1790183979"},{"product_id":"ingenuity-preaching-as-an-outsider","title":"Ingenuity: Preaching as an Outsider","description":"\u003ci\u003eIngenuity\u003c\/i\u003e introduces a theology and practice of preaching that emerges from the faith and wisdom of black women. Preaching has been resourced and taught from a narrow field of cultural or gendered experiences, historically. Without much support from established channels, black women are left to \"figure it out\" on their own, and others discern how to preach from a limiting scope. The best preachers understand their own voices and the voices of others. They stretch and grow, and this enables them to preach more effectively. Ingenuity equips readers to negotiate tradition, life experiences, and theological conviction in the creative work that makes way for sacred speech. With \u003ci\u003eIngenuity\u003c\/i\u003e, Lisa Thompson offers deep insights for anyone seeking to enlarge their understanding, their language, and their sense of lived experiences, and offers practical help through \"In Practice\" segments for those who preach. \"Written from the deep well of the spirituality of Black women, Thompson has given us a remarkable guide for what preaching should be and must be for the times we are in. Accessible, thoughtful, probing, pastoral, prophetic--all come together in this text. A must read for anyone committed to faithful excellence in proclaiming the word.\" -Emilie M. Townes, Dean and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University Divinity School","brand":"Abingdon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529053638829,"sku":"9781501832598","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_7d093e80-1e60-448a-b008-04547120006a.jpg?v=1790183982"}],"url":"https:\/\/thirdspacereadingroom.com\/collections\/now-next-program.oembed","provider":"ThirdSpace Reading Room","version":"1.0","type":"link"}