Preaching Through a Storm: Confirming the Power of Preaching in the Tempest of Church Conflict [Paperback]

H. Beecher Hicks Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 1987

The context was a building program for an urban congregation. The beginning bore no omens of controversy. But before long, both the pastor (the author) and the congregation found themselves in a storm that threatened the church's very existence and the pastor's future in ministry. It is common in this kind of storm that neither the preacher nor his flock will expect to hear from God. But the arresting message of this book is that it is often through the preaching itself that God speaks to the issues of conflict. It is through preaching that the issues are resolved, and neither the pastor nor the people are left unchanged. By example and by precept this book shows how to weather a storm in the only successful way--by preaching through it under the guiding hand of a compassionate God who knows our human anguish. This is a book you cannot afford to ignore. For, as one preacher puts it, you're either 'coming out of a storm, in a storm, or heading for a storm.'

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The context was a building program for an urban congregation. The beginning bore no omens of controversy. But before long, both the pastor (the author) and the congregation found themselves in a storm that threatened the church's very existence and the pastor's future in ministry.

It is common in this kind of storm that neither the preacher nor his flock will expect to hear from God. But the arresting message of this book is that it is often through the preaching itself that God speaks to the issues of conflict. It is through preaching that the issues are resolved, and neither the pastor nor the people are left unchanged.

By example and by precept this book shows how to weather a storm in the only successful way--by preaching through it under the guiding hand of a compassionate God who knows our human anguish. This is a book you cannot afford to ignore. For, as one preacher puts it, you're either "coming out of a storm, in a storm, or heading for a storm."

About the Author

H. Beecher Hicks Jr. is the senior minister of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington D.C. Designated one of the fifteen greatest African-American preachers by Ebony magazine, he is president of Martin Luther King Fellows, Inc., and Kerygma Associates.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (April 25, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310200911
• ISBN-13: 978-0310200918
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #379,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

H. Beecher Hicks Jr. is the senior minister of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington D.C. Designated one of the fifteen greatest African-American preachers by Ebony magazine, he is president of Martin Luther King Fellows, Inc., and Kerygma Associates.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent book on Black Pastoring in America, May 21, 1999

By 

[e-mail] Miles C. Harry (515 W. 14th Winston-Salem, NC 27105) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Preaching Through a Storm: Confirming the Power of Preaching in the Tempest of Church Conflict (Paperback)

I had an opportunity to hear a sermon from Dr. Hicks as he was the featured pastor at a conference in Winston-Salem, NC. It is there that my wife purchased this book for me.

This book is very informative and very provactive in the way Dr. Hicks presents his personal vantage point upon the ever present and on going storms in the church (especially the African American church).

He presents a litany of sermons that he has composed over the course of tumultous times during the construction of a new edifice, for a church that he has recently been called to pastor.

The sermons are prefaced by a prologue that gives a scenario of why this sermon, and follows with an epilogue of how the sermon was effective.

You will be moved to tears with some of the dialogue Dr. Hicks presents and you will be very enlightened with his biblical interpretations and prayers.

If you love good preaching and teaching buy this book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Renewed Hope and Strength through the Storms..., December 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Preaching Through a Storm: Confirming the Power of Preaching in the Tempest of Church Conflict (Paperback)

This ministers help book is DEEP and reaches to the very root of ministry...the part your average preacher refuses to touch. There is comfort in knowing that even though storms are sure to come in all of our lives ...there is a Blessing in them also. The candor of this writing equates to what I believe Raw God is like!

I have read this book in its entirety many times! It continues to refresh me and my ministry each time.

5.0 out of 5 stars Preaching Through a Storm, October 31, 2011

By 

rdg5641 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Preaching Through a Storm: Confirming the Power of Preaching in the Tempest of Church Conflict (Paperback)

This is an outstanding publication that takes the reader through the specific hardships and difficulties of institutional church life. It acknowledges severe challenges,real and imagined as well as spiritual leadership and successful break throughs.

It also conveys the on going natural human cycle of concerted attempts to undermine with exreme difficulties,disappointments,failures, the power of prayer, divine intervention and subsequent achievement through grace and mercy.

The reader is reminded this is an unyielding cycle and is an example of spiritual warfare that requires continuous monitoring and unremitting offense. But, joy comes in the morning.