The magic of dance has been an important part of Gil Hill's entire life. Through deep love and deep loss, a spin on the dance floor has always served as the best way to celebrate as well as the best remedy for an aching heart. Not only did Hill's parents fall in love on the dance floor, but so did Gil and his love and first wife, Melva. When she passed, Gil found comfort on the dance floor where he first captured the heart of his wife, Nancy. Since the day she offered to repair his dance shoes bag, the two have been happily dancing the night away. Throughout this heart-warming story, Hill shares much more than life as a dancer and preacher; he was a yeoman in the navy, a teacher, coach, husband, salesman, father, and friend who grew in faith to find his true calling as a pastor. His story shows how faith helps one endure life's struggles and tragedies. It is also a testament to letting God direct your life because He will always put you where you are meant to be, which may just be jitterbugging on a cruise ship as a dance host. In The Dancing Preacher, Gil nimbly illustrates how following your passions and staying active helps you maintain your health, spiritually, physically and mentally. His story exemplifies a life well lived-full of love, faith, adventure, new beginnings, and happiness.

Many clergy receive little training in the arts of preaching and it is assumed that they will learn by gaining experience. The renowned American preacher Herbert O’Driscoll suggests that congregations do not want to be given a map showing them how to get to the coast, they want to be drenched in the spray. Narrative preaching is a means of achieving such immediacy. By dramatic story-telling, it invites listeners into enter the text imaginatively and enables them to experience sermons as transformative events. This book aims to provide not just a theoretical introduction, but a resource that uses sermons in the narrative style to reflect on how to prepare and construct them and how to deliver them effectively in the context of worship.

Preaching magazine’s 2008 Book of the Year! The theme of doctrinal preaching and teaching comes to life through the enthusiastic and inspired writing of professor Robert Smith in Doctrine That Dances. Advance Praise: “At a time when so much of the conversation on preaching deals with presentation, Robert Smith has reminded us that effective teaching must also take the theological task seriously. He makes his case so well that his book, Doctrine that Dances, is our Preaching Book of the Year.” Michael Duduit, editor, Preaching magazine "Away with dull doctrinal sermons! Using the metaphor of music, the author shows us how to blend cogitation and celebration—mind and heart—in our preaching of Bible doctrine. You can benefit from his wide knowledge and experience in traditional western homiletics as well as African American preaching. We have much to learn from each other, and this book is a valuable contribution to the current conversation." Warren W. Wiersbe, former pastor of Moody Church, general director of Back to the Bible, and coauthor of Preaching in Black & White “A masterful preacher and teacher himself, Smith provides direction for students, young pastors and veteran preachers alike. Pulpits across the land will be strengthened as preachers implement the guidance offered in this volume. Doctrine That Dances will become mandatory reading for a new generation of preachers. It is a joy to recommend this marvelous work.” David Dockery, president, Union University “Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. is one of the most compelling voices in American preaching today . . . Doctrine That Dances describes the preacher’s task in a way that is at once personal, passionate, and provocative. This book describes the kind of preaching that is at the heart of the awakening that must come.” Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School and a senior editor at Christianity Today