Southern Baptists and American Evangelicals
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 65, No. 2 - Spring 2023
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Jared E. Alcántara. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019, 224pp., $24.99
“I’m supposed to be the franchise player, and we’re in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we’re talking about practice. Not a game.” While preachers may not rant like a professional basketball star in a press conference, we are tempted to think we’ve learned all we need in our seminary training. Now we focus on the game, the preaching moment. But practice isn’t only for professional athletes or student musicians. Hours of intentional hard work to improve will equip beginning preachers and strengthen experienced preachers. In The Practices of Christian Preaching, Alcántara calls preachers to “deliberate practice” rooted in four commitments: “well-defined and specific goals, focused attention, a consistent feedback loop, and a willingness to get out of one’s comfort zone” (p. 5). Chapter one establishes the foundation of a gospel emphasis in every sermon: “The gospel scandalizes our sensibilities by exposing our idols, interrogating our priorities, and calling into question our alliances” (p. 19). Alcántara then provides five areas of practice in the five remaining chapters. Preachers should grow in their ability and willingness to preach convictionally, contextually, clearly, concretely, and creatively.
What sets The Practices of Christian Preaching apart from other introductory homiletics texts is Alcántara’s “intentionally collaborative” and “strategically diverse” strategy (p. 191). The book is accompanied by online video discussions, questions for groups, sample sermon snippets, and personal reflection activities. Readers are invited to a robust conversation with an ethnically diverse group of preachers. Alcántara intentionally highlights, in the book and online, “courageous female preachers” which may limit the value of his book in some contexts (p. 48). Yet the overall strength of the book is his interaction with homileticians from non-majority cultures to help preachers overcome our “cultural blind spots” resulting from “our nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, and class” (p. 92). Alcántara’s viewpoint expands preachers’ intercultural competence. His own perspective, “I am half Honduran….my wife is half Puerto Rican,” helps expose the importance of cultural contextualization (p. 83). His entire book is a master class in contextuality.
Alcántara expects preachers to work on the skills of exegesis and crafting a homiletical outline and main idea, but he moves the conversation deeper into his five areas of deliberate practice. Even experienced preachers will gain insight and encouragement in Alcántara’s wisdom. He is a fantastic storyteller and master of analogies. Samples from his chapter on preaching convictionally highlight his clear writing style and deep understanding of key issues: “God’s decision to preach through preachers seems about as counterintuitive as a parent deciding to give dynamite to toddlers” (p. 53), “Pastoral ministry is a lot like trying to clean a house with young children in it. The moment you think it’s clean, it’s messy again” (p. 60), and “A preacher without conviction is like a car without gasoline. It serves a purpose, but it does not serve the purpose for which it was created” (p. 71). Alcántara offers insights into the important theories of homiletics but remains practical throughout. He warns against “the specific struggles that preachers face” including workaholism, vanity, celebrity, arrogance, inauthenticity, and prayerlessness (p. 60).
Alcántara’s chapters on preaching clearly and concretely rest upon solid homiletical foundations but shine in their practical applications. He gathers useful quotes and offers his own pithy wisdom. To Sunukjian’s insight “We talk so that eleven-year-olds can understand us” (p. 117) he adds “make every minute count no matter the sermon length” (p. 124) and “Challenge yourself to write a main idea that is twelve words or less” (p. 127). He warns, “Too many sermons major on abstraction and minor on concreteness” (p. 153) as he aims at preaching that is applicable “on Monday mornings” (p. 133). Alcántara’s emphasis on the importance of illustrations will help preachers reach listeners. Illustrations move down the ladder of abstraction to concrete understanding.
The strength of Alcántara’s final chapter on preaching creatively is when he moves beyond his historical explanation of creativity to practical ideas for fostering creativity. While risking a reductionistic summary, since there are many valuable insights, the chapter, and perhaps the book as a whole, can be captured by Ken Robinson’s reminder, “Creativity thrives on diversity” (p. 177). Alcántara serves the church by gathering diverse voices to strengthen preachers. Intentional and deliberate practice, in the midst of a diverse community, will improve preaching. Alcántara’s The Practices of Christian Preaching should be added as a supplementary text to introductory homiletics programs and deserves to be in the hands of experienced preachers eager to grow in gospel proclamation.
