While her work is not at all exegetically irresponsible, it may not be nourishing enough for some. Expositors will prefer a bit more "meat and potatoes" communication of the actual biblical content, with a bit less of her often delicate and delicious hermeneutical displays. The extended life situation illustration with which she ends her best sermon, "The Lost and Found Department," is worth the price of the book. Her own preparation process (pp. 80-86) pulses with a spiritual and practical heartbeat somewhat rare in works of this kind.

Any preacher can profit from the heart lift and soul stretch that such a volume provides.

Book Notes

Michael Duduit

Richard Lischer, The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Word That Moved America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 344 pp., hardcover, $25.00.

It is impossible to understand the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., apart from a recognition of his identity as a Christian preacher. Richard Lischer, professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, has provided the consummate study of King as preacher.

The Preacher King is both biography and homiletical analysis. Lischer traces King's youth and early ministry, and follows King's career through his growing political and social leadership, demonstrating how King wove his sermonic training and gifts into the public speaker who electrified crowds and helped change a nation.

Few if any American preachers in this century have had the influence of King. This fascinating book will offer insights that will engage both clergy and lay readers.

Wayne McDill, The 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994), 278 pp., hardcover.

One of the newest of Broadman & Holman's "Professional Development" series, McDill's book 12 areas for strengthening sermons. Chapters cover topics such as "Seeing What Is There" and "Bridging From Text to Sermon" to "Drawing Pictures, Telling Stories." The volume contains a number of good insights for preaching.

McDill is a former pastor who now serves as professor of preaching at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, NC.

Kenn Filkins, Comfort Those Who Mourn (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1992), 195 pp., paper.

One constant for most pastors is preaching funeral sermons. Depending on the age of the church, many pastors spend several hours a week preparing for and leading funeral services. Filkins' book will provide helpful counsel to preachers for personalizing funeral messages.

Filkins ministers with the Gilmore Church of Christ in Farwell, ML

Mark Galli and Craig Brian Larson, Preaching That Connects (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1994), 159 pp., paper.

This excellent little book offers excellent insights for preachers in adapting journalistic skills to the preaching craft. Galli and Larson will help readers focus and sharpen their communication skills. It's a quick read -- and worth it.

Mark Galli is managing editor of Christian History magazine and the Preaching Today cassette series. Larson is a contributing editor to Leadership journal. Both have served as pastors.

William D. Watley, Bring the Full Tithe (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1995), 128 pp., paper, $10.00.

Watley is an outstanding African-American preacher, and this collection of sermons "on the grace of giving" will offer ideas and insights to preachers as they approach their own stewardship messages.

William Watley is pastor of St. James AME Church in Newark, NJ.

Evans E. Crawford with Thomas H. Troeger, The Hum: Call and Response in African American Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 92 pp. paper.

Crawford offers us a unique look at the preaching tradition in the Black church. Readers will particularly appreciate his insights concerning the preacher's "homiletical musicality," which Crawford describes as "the way in which the preacher uses timing, pauses, inflection, pace, and the other musical qualities of speech to engage all that the listener is in the act of proclamation." Rather than a focus on sermon structure -- typical of most homiletical texts -- Crawford thinks of preaching in musical terms, emphasizing how sermons are heard and the response they generate with the listener.

Evans E. Crawford is acting Dean and teaches homiletics at Howard University in Washington, DC. Thomas Troeger teaches preaching at Iliff School of Theology in Denver.