It's All in How You Tell It: Preaching First-Person Expository Messages [Paperback]

Haddon W. Robinson (Author), Torrey W. Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

This fresh approach to preaching shows how to combine God's Word with the power of drama to develop a unique, relevant, and effective preaching style. "An invaluable resource tool in telling the 'old story' in fresh ways to a new generation."-Joseph M. Stowell, president, Moody Bible Institute

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Have you become bored with a faithful, yet predictable, style of preaching the Bible? If so, you may be robbing your audience, and yourself, of the joyful surprises offered by fresh, innovative preaching.
With this clear and comprehensive guide, you can learn to make God's Word come alive through story and drama. Haddon and Torrey Robinson reveal ways to get inside the minds of biblical characters, shift the camera angles on familiar scenes of Scripture, and present a first-person expository message that will capture the attention of contemporary listeners-and energize your preaching as well.

About the Author

Haddon W. Robinson, Ph.D., is the Harold John Ockenga Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. His book, Biblical Preaching, has sold more than 200,000 copies and has been used extensively in Bible colleges and seminaries since 1980.

Torrey W. Robinson, D.Min., has pastored churches in Wisconsin and New Jersey and is currently the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Tarrytown, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801091500
• ISBN-13: 978-0801091506
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Haddon W. Robinson (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is the Harold John Ockenga Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Previously, he was president and professor of homiletics at Denver Seminary and taught homiletics at Dallas Theological Seminary for nineteen years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, but only in the right hands..., November 12, 2008

By 

Chad Oberholtzer (Boalsburg, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: It's All in How You Tell It: Preaching First-Person Expository Messages (Paperback)

After reading Haddon and Torrey Robinson's "It's All in How You Tell It," I think that there is little to no chance that I will ever use this method of preaching. In short, first-person expository messages involve the preacher assuming a historical/biblical character and telling that person's story from their perspective (possibly involving things like costumes, props, makeup, etc.) Quite simply, I think it would be a complete disaster for me to try to play a "character" in any situation in which the goals included something beyond comedy. I don't have the acting chops for it.

Let me clarify that I think that this approach is perfectly legitimate in the right hands. But what they are talking about is a creative and artistic endeavor that not everyone can execute. This is analogous to suggesting that all preachers should not only write but also perform their own spiritual songs because we know that people learn well when information is transmitted through music. Yikes, what a frightening thought!! But somehow, we assume that drama is the artistic form that everyone can do well. I've seen enough absurdly bad church drama to be quite apprehensive to open the flood-gates of first-person expository messages.

Though the appendices at the end (7 sample first-person expository messages) are supposed to offer compelling examples of this technique, they instead left me even more wary of trying it. Most of those messages seemed exactly like the poorly written stuff that we need to avoid. Just as much with the delivery, the writing of these sorts of messages has the potential to be very powerful, but only for folks who are gifted in that way.

I would agree with the Robinsons that this approach is not utilized often enough, as I do not doubt that it can be quite effective. But I struggle with their assumption that any preacher can do it well. I would suggest that only people with the gifts of dramatic writing and dramatic delivery (and it is the rare individual who can do both well) should enter that world. And I am not that person...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very practical and might change your preaching, forever, March 30, 2007

By 

Yoyo (Caribbean) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's All in How You Tell It: Preaching First-Person Expository Messages (Paperback)

Dr. Robinson's "Biblical Preaching" has been a standard for more than 20 years and has been extensively used in seminaries and Bible colleges. I read it too for my homiletics class (and still have it). It explains the preparation and preaching of the traditional "three point sermon with introduction and conclusion." I was pretty good at it but eventually it got boring.

Thus I started checking into other methods and found this one, written by Dr. Robinson with his son Torrey. These authors still advocate expository preaching, but in a creative way: Biblical characters telling the stories from their point of view.

The book is great for a number of reasons. It is very practical, explaining everything from preparation to delivery. It encourages you to study the text and the cultural setting so that you can "milk" these for vivid, explanatory details that will greatly inrich your story. It includes a couple of sample sermons, so that I was able to envision what these sermons look like.

Once I tried it at church, people loved it so much, they applaud any time I do it (don't ask me why). Some people remember sermons I did more than two years ago. Others tell me this form makes the Biblical characters come to life or that they are transported into Biblical times.

I don't think that it might have been their intention, but I have actually abandoned the "three point sermon" advocated by Dr. Robinson in his "Biblical Preaching" and moved more into Fred Craddock's narrative preaching style. Credit (or blame) this book that has introduced me to preaching as story telling rather than the declaration of propositional truth.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Military Man, December 18, 2007

By 

Charles A. Rowland (Okinawa, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: It's All in How You Tell It: Preaching First-Person Expository Messages (Paperback)

This book is cutting edge homily. It was clear, concise. I bought one for my brother, and friend!