Preaching to a Post-Everything World: Crafting Biblical Sermons That Connect with Our Culture [Paperback]

Zack Eswine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

Using this comprehensive and practical guide will help you to preach God's truth without compromising doctrine or ignoring the faithful. Eswine shows how God's own interactions with humanity model relevant preaching and offers fresh, field-tested insights into the application of homiletics. Valuable appendixes detail steps to an effective sermon and provide questions for assessing cultural developments with spiritual discernment.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The sermon is dead. Long live the sermon.

Do you think a postmodern audience may render your preaching post-relevant? Think again. Zack Eswine takes you through the nuts and bolts--and the heart and soul--of engaging today's multicultural society with compelling messages from the pulpit. Such preaching, however, requires more than just contextualizing the message.

Using this comprehensive and practical guide will help you to preach God's truth without compromising doctrine or ignoring the faithful. Eswine shows how God's own interactions with humanity model relevant preaching and offers fresh, field-tested insights into the application of homiletics. Valuable appendixes detail steps to an effective sermon and provide questions for assessing cultural developments with spiritual discernment.

Whether a new or experienced speaker, in church leadership or in parachurch ministry, you can make an impact on the rising global village--starting now.

"Zack Eswine moves the Christ-centered preaching movement forward with this volume. He not only calls us to carefully contextualize our message to various cultures, sensibilities, and habits of heart, but he also gives us a host of practical tools, inventories, and guidelines for doing so. All the while he assumes and strengthens the foundational commitment to preaching Christ and his restoring grace from every text. A great contribution."--Tim Keller, senior pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City

"As a pastor/homiletician, Zack Eswine stands between the two worlds of the academy and the church, inviting biblical preachers to journey to the missional intersection where priest, prophet, and sage converge and converse. Navigating them through the turbulent waters of a post-everything culture, they arrive at the shore of homiletical hybridity: the terra firma of biblical revelation and contemporary relevance. Get on board!"--Robert Smith Jr., associate professor of divinity, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

About the Author

Zack Eswine (PhD, Regent University) is assistant professor of homiletics and associate dean of ministry formation at Covenant Theological Seminary. He is the author of Kindled Fire: How the Methods of C. H. Spurgeon Can Help Your Preaching and lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801091942
• ISBN-13: 978-0801091940
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #653,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Towards preaching that is Christ-centered and missional, June 9, 2008

By 

Darryl Dash "DashHouse" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Preaching to a Post-Everything World: Crafting Biblical Sermons That Connect with Our Culture (Paperback)

The question behind Preaching to a Post-Everything World is simple: "Could I now reach who I once was?" Zack Eswine of Covenant Theological Seminary wants the answer to be yes.

"Until we remember that God drew us to himself and nourished us before we even knew where to find the book of Exodus in the Bible or that such things as Arminianism and Calvinism even existed, we will withhold from others the same mercy that was required for us to learn what we now know."

To reach others in a post-everything world, Eswine argues that we need "preachers who understand biblical exposition in missional terms." How do we become this type of preacher?

First, we must prepare the sermon for a post-everything world. This means that we preach what is real, not what is simplistic. We preach what is redemptive, sensing echoes from within the text and within our culture of the redemptive storyline of the Bible. It also means that we avoid moralism. Eswine provides guidance on how to do this while connecting to real listeners who don't know or accept the biblical story of redemption.

Second, we can learn from God's homiletical range. Eswine helps us consider the various ways that truth is communicated through Scripture, including the models of prophet, priest, and sage. He writes:

"Expanding our preaching postures and connecting them to identified cultural contexts will give us what we need to retool our biblical sermons to connect with our cultures. God has already provided the communication frameworks we need to meet the challenges we encounter."

Finally, we must engage the cultures of a post-everything world, recognizing the various issues that will arise as people hear Scripture. Eswine helps us deal with difficult topics and defeater beliefs, and to contextualize our message without compromising it. He also calls us to rely on the Holy Spirit and to engage in monastic practices, so that the "mess of life" does not "strip the missional preacher of his substance."

Eswine also includes two valuable appendices: one outlining a process for sermon preparation, and another that outlines a method for discerning culture.

The strength of this book is that it is both Christ-centered and missional. The weakness of this book is that the material is sometimes overwhelming. Eswine warns us that the book will alternate between an informal style and formal lectures. I struggled sometimes as his writing bounced between these two styles.

Nevertheless, I'm glad I read this book. There's a wealth of material, and I'm sure I'll return to the book many times in the future. If you are a preacher looking for ways to be both Christ-centered and missionally relevant in your preaching, then you'll find this book valuable.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Much Needed Addition to the Christ-Centered Preaching Movement, May 17, 2009

By 

Michael Leake "Borrowed Light" (Huntingburg, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Preaching to a Post-Everything World: Crafting Biblical Sermons That Connect with Our Culture (Paperback)

Standing in the long line of Christ-centered preachers Zack Eswine offers Preaching in a Post-Everything World. Quite a bit has changed since the days of Geerhardus Vos and even since the first edition of Bryan Chapell's landmark manual Christ-centered Preaching. Eswine offers this book as a new chapter in the Christ-centered preaching movement.
Eswine writes in a way that will appeal to the preachers of a post-everything world. The seminary student or graduate will find this a needful corrective to the sometimes impractical world of academia. The non-seminary educated preachers will also benefit greatly from the non-technical everyday approach this book takes. Throughout this book Eswine holds the delicate balance of being Christ-centered and culturally relevant.

There were numerous times in this book when I had to put the book down and pray that the Lord would change my heart. The Lord used this book to reveal idols in my own heart and areas where I lack a pastor's heart. This book is both convicting and informative. This is one of those books that you have to read numerous times. Thankfully, there are helpful appendixes to assist in preparing sermons.

Honestly, there is very little that I could not recommend in this book. It is biblical, practical, well-written, attractive, informative; really everything you would desire in a preaching book. I would say that it will help you best if you have read Bryan Chapell's Christ-centered Preaching. In my opinion you cannot read one without the other.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful Reflection on Preaching So That Everyone Can Hear, December 29, 2009

By 

Marc Axelrod (Potter, Wi USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Preaching to a Post-Everything World: Crafting Biblical Sermons That Connect with Our Culture (Paperback)

I thought Dr. Eswine did a great job with this book. He is a proponent and practitioner of Bryan Chappel's approach to preaching (known in modern parlance as Christ Centered Preaching), and he applies it well to our modern times. The first section of the book discusses the preparation of the sermon. He discusses the importance of finding parrot words that are emphasized or repeated in the text. He talks about discerning the main point of the text within the context of the book. he talks about findifn the fallen condition focus of the text (the part of the text that shows what fragility or weakness there is in mankind that needs the redemption of Christ.

Eswine also talks about helping the congregation feel what Peter may have been feeling as he walked away from the empty tomb, marveling at what had happened.

The second part of the book discusses the exploration of biblical models. He says that preaching like a prophet doesn't always mean making people feel bad for 30 minutes and showing them God's grace for the last 2 minutes. It means being passionate and concerned and even challenging, but not necessarily red faced with anger.

Eswine also talks about preaching like a priest. In the OT priests taught the history and biography of the people, they taught doctine (Deuteronomy 4:15-24), they taught ethics (Leviticus 19:10, 13), and they taught liturgy. We need to do the same.

The third section of the book talks about presenting God's message to the cultures of the world. This means not being afraid to deal with the tough passages of scripture and not allegorizing them (like the student preacher who uses the left handed Ehud in Judges 3 as an example of how God uses weak people). Rather, pasages like the story of Ehud assassinating King Eglon are in Scripture to remind us of how far we have gotten from Eden, how far we have gotten from God.

Eswine also stresses that we discuss hell with compassion, and handle the war passages of scripture with care.

I know I only hit highlights, but I trust that there is enough here to convince you that this book was a worthwhile read for me as 2009 draws to a close. What impressed me the most about this book was Eswine's compassionate writing, and his understanding and care for human beings. That more than anything else encourages and challenges me as a preacher to remember that preaching is not just an art. It's a conversation with people I care about.