Fr. Michael F. Hull discusses preaching and cites:

The Rev. "Brad Braxton, an African - American Baptist minister.

"Braxton writes, Preaching is the faithful, passionate reporting of God's useful news."


Adapted from Fr. Hull's article titled "Approaches to preaching Paul" in the current Homiletic & Pastoral Review of March 2010.

"In an earlier article in HPR, I examined some of the challenges involved in preaching the gospel of St. Paul.

"I took as my point of departure a definition of preaching from Brad R. Braxton, an African - American Baptist minister, a former professor of homiletics at Vanderbilt Divinity School and now pastor of New York City's Riverside Church.

"Braxton writes, Preaching is the faithful, passionate reporting of God's useful news.

"The preacher faces many challenges in attempting to be faithful, passionate, and useful in the pulpit.

"Thus, in my earlier article, I outlined some ways in which preachers might meet these challenges in their sermons when preaching about Paul.

"Here I seek to expand on my earlier article by examining challenges in their sermons when preaching about Paul.

"Daniel Patte, also a professor of homiletics at Vanderbilt, writes, In order to learn how to preach Paul's gospel, there is no better teacher than Paul himself...

"So we have to look very closely at Paul's work; more specifically, we have to look at the context of Paul's writings, the texts upon which we are asked to preach, and the theology that undergirds Paul's mission as apostle and servant, but most of all as preacher (cf. Rom. 10:14; 1 Tim. 2:7; and 2 Tim. 1:11)..."

A good read, thanks Fr. Hull! :)