One Year to Better Preaching: 52 Exercises to Hone Your
Skills by Daniel Overdorf
This new book on preaching entitled One Year to Better
Preaching is a compendium of exercises to develop your skills as a communicator
of God’s Word. Daniel Overdorf aims to
bring together all components of a sermon from the illustrations, main points,
and application to the setting we find ourselves in as we preach to all kinds
of people. With good questions, keen
insights, and droves of practical examples, this book will surely help
preachers and teachers of every stripe.
Daniel is not content with harnessing his energy on one particular
aspect of preaching, but desires to encourage preachers through the whole
process of preaching from the preacher and listener’s perspective. This kind of unique perspective was what
challenged me the most as I seek to deliver God-honoring sermons.
The book is divided up into 52 short chapters with bonus
exercises at the end of the book. Each
chapter includes exercises, observations, additional suggestions, quotes from
pastors, and additional study material for further research. One of the chapters that resonated powerfully
with me in the book is Daniel’s chapter entitled Apply Specifically. We want applications that ‘describe specific
situations in which people might apply the text in specific ways. We need to witness for Christ, we can
describe a particular scenario: “Perhaps the guy in the next cubicle at work
does not know Jesus. You’ve shared
numerous conversations around the coffee pot about the weather and ballgames,
but you haven’t yet mustered the never to mention you faith. Perhaps you can begin by telling of…”
(126). Bringing applications to the
lived in situation of our hearers makes the call to proclaim the gospel much
more real and honest. I would add that
often times the seemingly surface conversations can easily lead to greater
depth of issues involving morality and faith if we ask the right
questions. Daniel’s insistence to
stimulate the listener’s imagination gives a hearer an opportunity to see what
could happen if they dreamed big and acted in ways that God was calling them to
act.
I really appreciated Daniel’s ideas concerning understanding
cultural capital for use in sermons; namely movies and fiction. As Daniel writes, “Culture communicates its
values and worldviews through various means, including its literature”
(307). Imbedded in literature are
beliefs and actions that are indicative of both the values, norms, judgments,
and worldview of its readers. Even if
these values and worldviews are inimical towards a biblical worldview,
understanding these things will help us reach our listeners where they find
themselves. I would add that
understanding the narrative structure and plot of great literature helps us
draw people in closer to the biblical narrative, because great works of art
imitate the greatest narrative by way of understanding human nature, creation,
and redemption. Daniel is right to
connect the emotional plight that characters go on with the points in our
sermon we are trying to connect with our listeners.
I really enjoyed reading this book because it challenged me
to think outside the box when preparing my sermons. Rather than going through it a rather
mechanical way, I now have some more tools to help encourage my listeners on
their path of faith.
Thanks to Kregel Ministry for the copy of this book in
exchange for review.
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