Expository preachers pay attention not only to content, but also to form. They strive to say what the text says as well as how it says it. The main formal features of narrative are plot, character, setting, and point of view. In Part One of this book, Arthurs treats each formal feature in its own chapter, exploring the literary artistry and rhetorical effects that biblical narrators generated. In Part Two, Arthurs demonstrates how to reproduce these rhetorical effects in sermons. The reader will encounter six strategies, explained and illustrated, to preach in ways that bring to life the formal features of narrative texts of Scripture. Two sample sermons with commentary illustrate the strategies and provide a model for preaching narrative in an engaging and effective manner.

Jeffrey D. Arthurs is the Haddon W. Robinson Professor of Preaching and Communication at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA. His other works include Preaching With Variety (Kregel), Devote Yourself to the Public Reading of Scripture (Kregel), and Preaching as Reminding (IVP).