Excellent Book on Preaching

I just finished an excellent book on communication and preaching by Andy Stanley, the pastor of the very successful Northpoint Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.  In “Communicating for a Change”, Stanley’s ministry partner Lane Jones begins the book with a well crafted story about a pastor who’s looking to connect with his congregation better.  He visits with a businessman (The same fellow who helped him in an earlier Stanley book) who sends him to meet “Willy Graham” and to find out the keys to better communication.  Now Willy is not Billy and prefers to go by the name Will.  Not only that, but in this fictional account, Will is an over the road truck driver who’s been preaching for years. (Hence the picture of the truck on the book).  Of course our pastor friend wonders what a trucker can teach him about preaching and that leads them on a journey that allows Will to share some specific points about preaching and communicating for life change.  The story ends happily enough and then, Stanley enters the picture in the second half of the book to elucidate each of the points shared in the fictional story.

I’ll not get into too much detail since you can Google your way through a number of sites that will tell you more about the book but on a practical level, this book is outstanding.  I’ve already made the switch to “one-point” preaching as Stanley suggests and for me, the results have been tremendous.  The first few weeks were hard and I’m still adapting my style (not changing it mind you!) to incorporate the ideas shared in this book.  I’m always looking to communicate better and I think in today’s church world, we better find ways to connect story to biblical text to real application if we hope to see the changes in people’s lives that we’re after.  Stanley’s approach is thoroughly biblical for those who would criticize and not read his book.  In fact, his entire emphasis is built around leading your audience to the text and working through it to make contemporary application possible.  This is the best book I’ve seen on contemporary biblical preaching.  Preaching magazine has named it one of its top three books for preachers this year and I would agree.

There’s not a lot of methodology shared here other than a simple paradigm that Stanley uses to direct his planning and preparation.  From there, some simple questions guide the preacher in preparing a message around one point and staying on topic and vibrant throughout.  Another benefit this method has is that it sharpens your sermons and cuts out the fluff.  Awesome benefits in my opinion!

I highly recommend you get a copy of this book if you are communicating in any way.  While the text is aimed at those who preach each week, it’s ideas could be adapted to any communication setting.