Preaching and the Personal

Preaching is a personal event: a minister or speaker prepares his or her sermon and presents it to the congregation. Preaching, however, also includes the Bible as a central source; this source comes from and provides a basis for the believing community. The preaching event is also personal for the members of the congregation, who are not simply recipients of the preacher's words based on a biblical text. The congregation is involved personally in that each individual interprets the words and the text. What is said in the text, in the sermon, and the listener's response represent parts of each one's testimony. Testimony runs throughout preaching, the Bible, and the congregation. It is in this interchange of preacher, text, and listener that not just one testimony develops but many testimonies are present.

J. Dwayne Howell is Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew in the School of Theology at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and pastor of the Rolling Fork Baptist Church in Gleanings, Kentucky. He serves as the chair of the Homiletics and Biblical Studies Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.