A pastor-created and field-tested, easily adaptable method for planning a comprehensive preaching ministry.

A pastor-created and field-tested, easily adaptable method for planning a comprehensive preaching ministry.

Provides pastors with a step-by-step process for creating a preaching plan that nurtures growing disciples.

Expository preaching has been on the rise over the last five decades, with more and more pastors preaching through entire books of the Bible systematically. But few, if any, preachers have a long-term plan to teach through every book of the Bible over a lifetime of ministry. Since the whole Bible is God’s Word to his people, all of Scripture is important in order to grow as Christians. Written to make a case for the necessity of a long-term plan for preaching through the entire Bible instead of just through individual books, this is not just a book on how to preach, but also how to plan and prepare long-range preaching programs through the whole counsel of God.

One Year to Better Preaching provides preachers with fifty-two hands-on exercises that sharpen their homiletical skills. The book is designed particularly for those who preach each week—and have been, perhaps, for some time—to help them get out of the rut of the routine and infuse their preaching with new sparks of creativity, fresh approaches to sermon preparation and design, and sharpened verbal and nonverbal communication skills. Novice preachers, also, will find the exercises useful in developing their preaching abilities. Each chapter includes instructions for an exercise, tools and suggestions needed for the exercise, comments from preachers who completed it, and recommended resources for further study The exercises address eight categories of homiletics: • Prayer and Preaching • Bible Interpretation • Understanding Listeners • Sermon Construction • Illustrations and Applications • Word Crafting • The Preaching Event • Sermon Evaluation Readers can complete the exercises in the order presented, which address different categories week to week, or they can sharpen their skills in a particular category over a period of weeks by using the chart provided. They might also work through the exercises in collaboration with other preachers. One Year to Better Preaching will leave a preacher reinvigorated and better equipped to proclaim the Word of God skillfully, passionately, and effectively.

Hull challenges pastors and church leaders to follow a new paradigm in pastoral ministry-one that utilized pulpit ministry to achieve the strategic goals of the church by challenging the congregation to move towards God's calling. Combining studies in Bible, homiletics, secular leadership, and church leadership, this book enters a complex field and creates a challenging call to preachers to unify their tasks as ministers and as strategic church leaders. Out of his experience as a pastor, seminary professor, administrator, and workshop leader, Hull cites personal case studies to show how preaching can nudge a church to achieve the courageous goals its strategic planners have set out.