I just love this little booklet entitled Transforming Preaching by Jonny Baker. I would say that this booklet is a must-read for preachers today. It is in a series on evangelism but it is just as relevent whether you are preaching the gospel or preaching to the church. Jonny Baker looks at how we can fully engage the interest of our listeners. It goes way beyond just having a flashy PowerPoint or the occational visual aid.Jonny ‘slays the sacred cow’ of the sermon being a long monologue and looks at other ways to engage people in learning about God creatively and interactively. In Jonny’s ‘remix’ of the sermon things look very different. He doesn’t see the preacher as someone who merely spoon feeds information and opinions to the congregation. Instead he sees the preacher as just one voice among many as people are encouraged to take part discussing, interacting and responding in various imaginative ways. Jonny clearly outlines the principles to follow that will get you going in this direction.
This provocative little booklet is now published by Grove Books and can be purchased from them here for £3.50 or from Church House bookshop here. But I’ll let you into a secret: Jonny originally wrote this as a chapter for a book on preaching. When it didn't make the final volume he made his chapter available as a free download from his own site here.
If you have anything to do with preaching then please get hold of this booklet, read it and put it into practice.
