What Should I Be Reading?
For this issue of The Cord, we have asked Scott M. Gibson, David E. Garland Professor of Preaching and director of the PhD Program in Preaching, to provide a Top 10 reading list.
My abiding interest is to assist pastors to love what they do as ministers of the gospel. The books listed below are only some of the many helpful resources—and, if I may, include some of my own publications—that I’d like to suggest to you as you sharpen your thinking, your preaching, and your practice. The first four books (Wright, Kim, Gibson and Mason, and Kim) listed below will, I trust, help bring clarity on a few different issues we face as we preach in the current climate in which we find ourselves ministering. The next three books (Robinson, Stott, and Chapell) are foundational for any preacher to read for the first time or to review again. The book by Gibson and Kim will help readers understand the nuanced hermeneutical approaches that preaching takes. My book on preaching and plagiarism addresses a current controversy but demonstrates that this practice reaches into the past as well as the present. Finally, the classic book(s) by Jan Karon are a feast for any pastor. The novel(s) feature a pastor who, unlike much current literature and newsfeeds about scandalous preachers, is loved by the congregation—and he loves them, too. This series will encourage any preacher to push on with joy in ministry for Christ.
God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath
N.T. Wright
Preaching to People in Pain: How Suffering Can Shape Your Sermons and Connect with Your Congregation
Matthew D. Kim
Preaching Hope in Darkness: Addressing Suicide from the Pulpit
Scott M. Gibson and Karen Mason
Preaching with Cultural Intelligence: Understanding the People Who Hear Our Sermons
Matthew D. Kim
Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages
Haddon W. Robinson
: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century
John R.W. Stott
Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon
Bryan Chapell
Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four Views of Preaching Today
Scott M. Gibson and Matthew D. Kim, eds.
Should We Use Someone Else’s Sermon? Preaching in a Cut and Paste World
Scott M. Gibson
At Home in Mitford, (the first book in the Mitford Series of 14 novels)
Jan Karon