Preaching from the Soul

This book is written by my new professor of preaching, Dr. Ellsworth Kalas. On the chance that he should read this blog I suppose I should be careful, but that won't be necessary. My first thoughts while reading this book were, "This would be a good book for beginners . . . I wish I was not in such need of this basic stuff."

One of the things I was hoping I would get in this program at Asbury was simple, straight-forward sermon helps. This book fits that bill well. Kalas (our first class with him was this morning) is fun to hear. He has a likability that allows him to make comments on the side, comments that make it clear that he is disappointed in a lot of the preaching he hears--without seeming bitter or angry.

He told us that this would be the last opportunity of our careers to receive honest critique of our preaching. He said he would be honest, but not brutal.

Back to the book . . . Kalas covers the nature of scripture, preaching, sermons, sermon titles, introductions, the meat of a sermon, conclusions, and how one delivers a sermon. This may sound a bit ambitious, but his style is quick, down to earth, and refreshing.

Here are some enjoyable quotes from the book:

• "As a teacher of preaching, I feel that one of my greatest challenges is to develop the gifts of students without diminishing their souls."
• "I have great regard for good theater. But the pulpit is not a performance; it is an incarnation."
• "I respect the importance of working, whenever possible, with the original biblical languages, but the issue here is not one's skill with Greek and Hebrew; it is one's willingness to sit patiently before a passage, turn it from side to side, imagine it from varieties of human experience, and to love it passionately."
• "The secret is to go deeper, not broader. Thrust yourself into the very blood and sinew of the passage."
• "I've found the subconscious mind to be one of my best allies. I consider it particularly hospitable to the work of the Holy Spirit. But the subconscious can't be expected to work ex nihilo. We must give it some soil in which the soul can germinate."
• "[Sara Lowery and Gertrude E. Johnson] taught that a great voice depended, first, on an adequate instrument, and second, upon a magnetic personality. And what makes a magnetic personality? 'Kindness, tolerance, appreciation, and unselfish interest in others.'"
• "Sometimes even the preacher forgets [his or her] sermon after a week or two; this darling child, about which any criticism once seemed a mortal blow is, in ten days, homiletical dust."

I will be telling you more about Dr. Kalas in future blogs. I can tell there will be some moments of "ouch" in this class, but I'll just have to remind myself that I didn't uproot the family and move to Wilmore in order to be affirmed. I came to get better.