Homiletics from the Heart will help every preacher who desires to more effectively communicate the Word of God, every Sunday school teacher who desires to properly prepare a lesson, and every Christian who desires to memorize and use the Scripture in his life and witness.

You can teach the craft, but you must first form the heart. Many preachers want to preach better, but they don't always know how to go about improving, and most books on preaching focus on the mechanics of the craft. But preaching involves more than the steps from a text to a sermon, because every time a preacher stands up to preach, their character shines through—for better or for worse. In The Heart of the Preacher, Rick Reed focuses on the personal heart preparation required before any preacher is ready to preach. He explores issues preachers often wrestle with—like discouragement, insecurity, and pride. He then offers practices to fight these challenges and form a heart that carries the fruit of the Spirit into the pulpit. It takes more than a good speaker to preach. It takes a Spirit-filled person. This book will help you check your heart and cultivate the most important aspect of preaching: your character.

Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart is about words, most particularly, it is a book about the Word, the living Word of God, found in the Scriptures, and embodied once and for all in the person of Jesus, the Word made flesh. In Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart Fr. James Wallace offers a nuanced consideration of the homily as nourishment. He focuses on three common liturgical contexts: feasts of the Lord, feasts of Mary and the saints, and the sacramental rites. He relates the preaching that occurs within each area to one of the heart's basic hungers: for wholeness (the great feasts of the Lord), for guidance (feasts of Mary and the saints), and for meaning (various rites). He also addresses the spirituality of the preacher as it is worked out in the process of preparation. For preachers and students in schools of ministry who are preparing to preachPreaching to the Hungers of the Heart will serve as a useful tool to help satisfy the hunger to preach the Gospel. It includes homilies that provide excellent starting points for preachers looking for ideas. Chapter one considers the image of feeding God's people with the Word of God. Chapter two, considering the innermost hunger of the human person, looks to the preaching that takes place on the great feasts of the Lord and how such preaching can nourish the hunger for wholeness. Chapter three returns to the hunger for meaning already mentioned and extends to the other sacramental celebrations the homily's capacity to meet this hunger, including those addressed by the various sacramental celebrations of the Church such as baptisms, weddings, funerals, rites of reconciliation, and anointing of the sick. Chapters four and five present the homily as responding to the hunger to belong. The final chapter considers one other hunger of the heart, unique to the preacher, referred to by John Paul II as a hunger to preach the gospel (Pastores Dabo Vobis, no. 28). Chapters are "Preaching's Task in a New Millennium: Feeding God's People," "Preaching the Feasts of the Lord and the Hunger for Wholeness," "Preaching Within the Sacramental Rites and the Hunger for Meaning, "Preaching Through the Saints and the Hunger for Belonging: I - The Saints," "Preaching Through the Saints and the Hunger for Belonging: II - Mary," and "Cultivating the Preacher's Hunger: 'To Make the Gospel Known and Loved.'" James A. Wallace, CSsR, PhD, is professor of homiletics at Washington Theological Union. His previous works include Preaching Through the Saints and The Ministry of Lectors published by The Liturgical Press. He has also authored numerous articles and has given preaching conferences and workshops in the U.S. and abroad. "

Fundamental principles to consider in homiletics training.

Kate Bruce argues that imagination can help to engage the hearer in a sermon which seeks to evoke rather than to inform. Imagination frames how we see the world and ourselves in it. As such it has a vital role in how preachers see the preaching task itself, which in turn affects how we go about the task.

There’s a seemingly innocuous villain that is taking up residence in the pulpits of countless churches, disrupting the connection between the pastor and the people and keeping the proclamation of God’s word from having its full effect. That villain is the preacher’s notes. Preachers know this all too well. Many wish that they could “preach by heart” without the aid of notes, but are unsure how to do so—and are left feeling frustrated and discouraged by the presence of that disruptive interloper. Author Ryan Tinetti shares an unexpected solution in the form of an ancient and time-tested practice known as the method of loci, or Memory Palace. Surveying portions of classical rhetoric that are especially relevant for contemporary preachers and diving deep into the theory and practice of the Memory Palace, Preaching by Heart plunders these ancient treasures that have been so formative for preachers through the ages but too oft neglected in our own time. When pastors preach by heart, they find greater satisfaction in the homiletic task and their proclamation is even more effective. Preaching by Heart shows how to pitch the notes and reach that goal.

Homiletical Handbook is a primer for those who are called to preach. It is intentionally simple in its explanation of the homiletical task and straightforward in getting to the point. It is solid in its theology and biblical in its approach.