I really enjoyed most of this book, but the last section left me feeling quite uneasy. The premise - that preachers need to model themselves after Jesus - is compelling. The author's four guidelines - 1) be dialogical (be relevant), 2) be proclamatory (don't be wishy-washy), 3) be only occasionaly self-referential (the sermon isn't about you); and be persistently figurative (use imagery to communicate) - are very helpful.
However, for the fourth point the author goes to an extreme... he recommends something that 1) I think is inappropriate and 2) calls in to question the integrity of his whole book. He encourages preachers to make up examples as complete fictions (he calls them "fabrications") but to tell them in the sermons as if they are actual events. (See, for example, page 143-144 and his example of the character "Amy" in a sermon. The "Amy" story is not couple of sentences as a simple example but two long paragraphs, full of details, and it was the moving closer to his sermon.)
It's one thing to change a name or place to preserve anonymity -- and one might accept the literary license to blend two people or experiences into one for the sake of homiletic clarity -- but I am really troubled by his assertion that it's perfectly acceptable to misrepresent completely fictional events or people as "real" in a sermon in order to make one's point. To quote Brosend, "Amy was a complete fabrication but I needed a closing story about the importance and power of seeking." His argument is essentially that "the end justifies the means."
Once the preacher decides he can pass off fiction as reality to "make one's point" where does this end? - in pastoral counseling? in a church council meeting? We have enough half-truths or outright lies in our lives these days - what with advertising trying to sell us things we don't really need and no one trusting what government officials or corporate spokespeople say. I don't like the idea of bringing that attitude into the pulpit - that to "make one's point" we'll make up fictions and sell them as fact. Figurative, imaginative preaching is great but I think -- in this specific point -- that Brosend's crossed a line that we should not cross when preaching.
And so, after getting to the end of the book, I now wonder -- what else in his book was fiction that he passed off as fact? I'm left feeling manipulated... and I can only give a half-hearted recommendation for the book.
