Passion in the Pulpit by Jerry Vines, Adam B. Dooley

Passion in the Pulpit by Jerry Vines, Adam B. Dooley ISBN-13: 9780802418388 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Moody Publishers Released: July 3, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
It's easy to let our own personalities dictate the emotional dimension of our sermons, but the best preachers mirror the Bible's emotive intent in their sermons. When we elevate the Bible's emotional intent above our own, we preach truth rather than personality. In Passion in the Pulpit, Jerry Vines and Adam Dooley will teach you how to exegete not just the verbal content of Scripture, but its emotional appeal as well. They show you the role the Bible's emotional intent should play in each stage of sermon prep, and offer exegetical steps to discern the biblical pathos, teach you how to avoid manipulation while making your sermons emotional, help you determine the appropriate limitations of emotional appeal, and give you verbal, vocal, and visual techniques to help convey the biblical emotional intent in your sermons


My Review:
Passion in the Pulpit explains that what you say matters, but so does how you say it. The two authors argue that we need emotion in our preaching--not to manipulate with it but to bring out the intent of the passage and impart that emotion to the audience. One author explained the reasoning and the how-to while the other author gave examples of how he's done those things with his sermons in the past. They talked about the importance of determining the mood and tone conveyed by the text and conveying that through your preaching (tone of voice, movements, what you say, etc.). They suggested looking at the genre of the passage, the words used, the background and big picture, and the intent of the writer. While I found the information interesting, I discovered that I'd already been doing much of what they suggested when I prepare my Sunday School teaching for elementary age children. Maybe children just draw out a more emotion-engaging style. (This book is aimed at preachers for adults in the main church, but I thought I might get something useful out of it, too. And I did.)


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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