Prepare a Road! : Preaching Vocation, Community Voice, Marketplace Vision

Lutheran pastor Kim Beckmann presents a challenging new method for engaging scripture in the preparation of sermons for the parish. Utilizing the preacher’s own sense of vocation, the community’s voice, and the collective vision for the Gospel in the marketplace, Beckmann teaches us how to read the scriptures with fresh eyes, to see the coming Kingdom of God in encounters and events as “ordinary” as going on site with a local bulldozer operator to “prepare a road” in the wilderness. A fresh and exciting look at preaching, community, and the Word of God as it is lived every day by the People of God.

“In my sermon-writing cell, surrounded by a feast of commentary, I find myself casting a wandering (and wondering) eye out the window toward the village square, where this gospel, my message, will finally have to live. What if the sermon could be conceived in the very soil in which it has to take root? While many of us consider the Bible to be the favorite storybook into which we want to climb, we nevertheless often find its language inaccessible, its setting unfamiliar, and the apprehension of its real meanings for daily life frustrating to pursue. In our frankly market-driven society, where such a difficult story must compete with many other stories that are both easier to access and seemingly easier to inhabit, the gospel story calls forth faithful and inspired interpreters and equally faithful and inspired tellers.”

KIM L. BECKMANN is the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Stambaugh, Michigan and Bethany Lutheran Church in Amasa, Michigan. She received her Doctorate in Ministry and Preaching at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.