This is a book about the forbidden topic-the Sunday morning sermon! According to The Great American Sermon Survey, one thing pastors and people in the pew don't talk with each other about is the sermon. This remarkable book calls pastors to competency in communication; challenges parishioners to practice excellence in listening; shatters the common stereotype that a sermon is a monologue; reveals what sermon listeners will never tell their preacher; uncovers the differing expectations between pulpit and pew; discovers the surprising mutual desires of pastors and lay people; insists that sermons are potentially transformative, even today; proposes ways that listeners and preachers can dialogue and interact together; applies communication research to help pastors increase the impact of their spoken words.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
"Good sermon." This comment and a handshake- that's about as much as most listeners are willing to provide to their preachers after a sermon. In fact, a vast majority of listeners and preachers never talk to each other about sermons. In some ways, this is the forbidden topic! But In this national, ground-breaking study of sermon communication, randomly selected preachers and their listeners did talk to communication professor Dr. Carrell, who (quite eagerly) "talks back" about the sermon- revealing, contrasting, and examining the perceptions of those who preach and those who listen to preachers.
One goal of The Great American Sermon Survey is to enable preachers and listeners to better understand each other.
The study of preaching is not new, but the study of preaching as "communication" is indeed novel. Dr. Carrell's communication perspective asserts that listeners and preachers are partners in interaction. A sermon is not a monologue, she insists, despite our preconceptions. Says Carrell, "Preaching is not something the preacher does to listeners, but rather something preachers and listeners do with each other. Sermon communication, like all other communication, is a mutual endeavor."
Much of the book is an intriguing, and extremely practical, treatise on how preachers and listeners can make this happen. "Words are powerful," maintains Dr. Carrell. And the sermon that occurs millions of times all over the world each week with thousands of preachers and multitudes of listeners has the potential to be utterly transformative. This book shows us how this can be done with responsibility, shared by preachers and their listeners.
At the turn of the millennium, when many expect the electronic age to eradicate the face-to-face public speaking event, this sermon research inspires us with a reminder of the power of the spoken word and motivates those of us (In the pulpit and in the pew) to listen to each other, to learn to co-create meaning.
About the Author
Lori J. (Hickerson) Carrell holds an Endowment for Excellence Chair at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh where she is an Associate Professor of Speech Communication. For most of her academic career, she has investigated human communication in educational and intercultural contexts. Dr. Carrell has won both an outstanding teacher award and a research award from her professional association. Professor Carrell earned her Ph.D. in Speech Communication from the University of Denver, her MA in Counseling/Education (with a cross-cultural focus) from the University of Alaska-Anchorage, and a BA in Speech Communication/Theater, Education, and Psychology from Anderson University, graduating summa cum laude from each institution. She feels passionate about sermons, feeling that face-to-face communication is the best way to convey the message of Christianity.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pulpit Communication,
By Arthur D. Volkmann (Ripon, WI United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Great American Sermon Survey (Hardcover)
Dr. Carrell accomplishes what she set out to do and did it well. She is not only a professor of communications, but an excellent communicator both in print and in the classroom. This book reveals a wealth of information about the perceptions of preacher and listener alike and has many helpful suggestions for both. As a pastor near retirement I would that this perspective would have been available in my seminary years. The primary weakness for me is that in surveying both Catholic and Protestant, evangelical and liberal, the averaging is not always meaningful. That is, I would like this same survey information from just evangelical preachers and listeners. None-the-less, Dr. Carrell's book demonstrates careful research and is a good start in opening the dialogue between pulpit and pew.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sermons, a Dialogue Between Preacher and Perishioner,
By John E. Gilliland (somewhere else) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Great American Sermon Survey (Hardcover)
Dr. Carrell interviewed many Christian preachers, both Protestant and Catholic, and many perishioners in preparation for this objective study of the sermon. She sees the sermon as a dialogue between preacher and perishioner. If the perishioner is an active, not passive, participant in this dialogue the sermons will be more meaningful. Dr. Carrell suggests one way to encourage active dialogue is through discussion meetings between the preacher and some of the members on the sermon topic before and/or after the deliver of the message to the congregation.
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