Massey, James Earl. The Burdensome Joy of Preaching. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998. 98pp. ISBN 0-687-05069-3.

Those who have heard James Earl Massey preach, or teach about preaching or have read his books about preaching will quickly agree that he is well suited to write about The Burdensome Joy of Preaching. In more than 40 years of preaching, teaching, and writing, he has had ample time to reflect over all that goes into the preaching task. Anyone who has preached can resonate with Gardner Taylor's assessment of the "sweet torture of Sunday morning." Massey offers his thoughts on that "sweet torture" in these pages.

I recently heard a radio commentator ask, "What is the one thing that someone in your profession would need to know above all others in order to be 'successful'?" I would venture to say that in terms of a preaching ministry, the sine qua non is a call experience. I am relieved to have my hunch con-firmed by no less than James Earl Massey. He begins this work, which has grown out of several lectureships at prestigious seminaries across the years, by dealing with the inward side of preaching. Preaching is audacious because it pre-sumes to speak for God. It makes sense then that a sense of calling would be paramount. One can only speak for Someone Else with Their authorization.

Preachers feel the burden of wanting to get the message right and delivered in such a way that the full impact of the message is received by the listeners. Unfortunately, the pulpit presentation that one dreams about on Thursday and Friday in the study often fails to materialize on Sunday morning. Preachers often leave church on Sunday afternoon depressed over their failure to live up to their highest hopes for pulpit brilliance on Sunday morning. In the midst of such vicissitudes and uncertainty, there is nothing that can encourage the preacher any more than to know that God has called and equipped him or her for this task.

If the inward side of preaching focuses on the preacher's soul, the outward side focuses on the benefit of preaching for the souls of others. Four key sub-themes that Massey develops are perceptions, meaning, style, and involvement. The point of a preaching ministry is to allow the message to be heard by those to whom we preach. A preacher whose own soul is right will come across to his or her hearers as someone who has the best interests of his listeners at heart.

Key to being perceived as having the listeners genuine best interests at heart, is being viewed as God's representative. This, too, flows from a sense of calling upon our lives. Massey states, "The adequate resources [the anointing] makes available to us are the validating marks of Christ's presence with us." Preaching's outward side is most effective when it is characterized by love for those to whom we preach.

Preaching is not merely the activity of a preacher who is engaging in some kind of cathartic activity solely for his or her own benefit. Neither is it a one-way exhortatory process whereby the preacher tells the congregation something exclusively for their benefit. At its best, preaching builds community, particularly the community of faith.