Preaching – Calvin Miller

 

© 2006, Baker Books, Grand Rapids

It’s no secret that I like Calvin Miller. The couple of times that I have had opportunity to meet him in person, I have found him to be a personable person. Consequently, I also like to read Miller’s writing. Being who I am, I prefer his fiction to his poetry (but like both). I also prefer the fiction to the allegory since the allegory makes me look too closely at my short-comings. So when I finally got a chance to read Miller’s “textbook” on narrative sermonizing (creatively titled Preaching), I knew I was in for an interesting journey.

As a preacher, I don’t read much on preaching. I like to excuse myself with the thought that I have too much on my plate to spend much time on reading about preaching (and yes, I know that it’s an excuse). As a student, I didn’t much like my preaching classes. Not that they weren’t helpful, nor did it have much to do with the personality of the instructor and other students. No, the reason I don’t like to read on preaching or study the art is that whenever I do so I begin to feel utterly inadequate. (This, by the way, can be a good thing.)

I was not disappointed in reading Miller’s book. He challenged my study habits, my sermon-construction rituals, and my delivery style. Time after time as I chewed on a passage here and there I found myself muttering, “How does anyone have time to do this for three sermons a week (well, a main sermon—Sunday morning, a runner-up—Sunday evening, and a mid-week ‘Bible study’) AND be out being the pastor?” Even so, Miller builds an excellent case for the preacher to do all the required study—know yourself, know your audience, know your passage, know your message—and to craft a sermon that your audience will actually listen and respond to.

Included are three major sections: (1) Preparing for the sermon (“Exegesis of All Things"); (2) Writing the sermon; and (3) Preaching the sermon. Section after section, chapter after chapter, page after page, the preacher will find helpful information if not challenging. Along with the challenge comes a gentle chastisement for not handling the task of preaching as carefully as we ought. Finally, in all of this is the reminder that there is something otherworldly about the sermon. Keeping this in mind, the preacher can realize that the only way to adequately and rightly completing the task at hand is to rely on the Spirit of God (not as a cop-out for doing a bad job, but as a handle to hold onto as we lay our pale sacrifice on the altar of sermon).

For me the most useful section of this useful book is the appendix (how do we get along without appendixes?). Here Miller presents a list of ten mentors whose writing can help the preacher to better develop a sound preaching routine (even though there is nothing routine about the task of preaching). What this means for me is that I’ve more reading about preaching to do (ugh!). I already have one of the books recommended—thought I had another, but can’t find it on the shelf. So, I’m off to my task. If you stand week in and week out in a pulpit where preaching is your activity, I suggest you start your task by reading this book.

5 out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, November 30, 2011

A Year in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania -- Novels by Calvin Miller

Seasons of Pennsylvania Series – Calvin Miller

Snow © 1998, Wind © 2000, Shade © 2001, Frost © 2002 Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis

I have to apologize for reviewing a collection of books, but these should be read together, if you can find them all. Calvin Miller—preacher, author, artist, poet (not necessarily in that order)—is a master storyteller. And he proves it once again with this four book collection that brings the reader to the small community of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, in the era of the Great Depression.

Each installment of the collection focuses on one season, and the interaction of several of the notable families in this rural town. As expected, Snow is set in winter—specifically around the Christmas season—and we become acquainted with the Muellers (the “coal people”) and Mary Withers, a young widow with a sickly daughter. As the dram unfolds, the little girl, Alexis, almost dies on the night that Otto Mueller is discovered to return home to his estranged family, even as his younger brother Erick falls in love with that “Vithers voman” as father Hans calls Mary. Christmas miracles ensue.

In Wind, Miller turns our focus to the McCaslin family (the “cow people”). Peter—the male heir to the McCaslin Dairy—finds himself at odds with his sister Isabel (called “Dizzy Izzy” by everyone because of her proclivity to quote scripture and hang on to the long gone love of an unscrupulous Bible salesman named Benny Baxter) when she insists that the dairy is responsible for giving a job to the down-on-his-luck Ernest Pitovsky and give him, his wife, and their two children a warm place to live. Otto Mueller appears once again, this time to rescue Isabel from her lovesick madness.

As summer creeps up on our little town, Shade chronicles the lives of the families involved as Benny Baxter returns to turn Isabel back into Dizzy Izzy. Also returning to town is Mabel Cartwright’s wayward daughter Christine who discovers a dark secret in the memory boxes of her mother—whose personal memory is failing. Otto sees his love for Isabel slipping away even as his father Hans succumbs to cancer. How will the Muellers survive crisis after crisis?

In a final note, Miller returns us again to King of Prussia in Frost. As the title suggests, this part of the story takes place in Autumn as the town anticipates the first frost of the year. Christine Cartwright discovers she is carrying Benjamin Baxter’s baby—though she has discovered just what a heel Benny is. Helena Pitovsky continues to battle tuberculosis. Mary Withers disappears with her dead husband’s identical twin brother only to find out that they are only identical in physical appearance. Ingrid Mueller must work the wonders only a mother can work to ensure that her sons will be happy and find the love that they both deserve.

You must read the books yourself to get a feel for Pennsylvania in the 1930s. The continued reference to the local Lutheran Church brings a homey touch to this collection of books (which you can order as a set from the author’s website while supplies last).

As a whole I give the books four out of five reading glasses because they are good, readable tellings of a pleasant story about a not-so-pleasant time. I did find that the first of the books touched my fancy most, though. Miller suggests that the last installment is the best because of the resolution found there. In any case, you will enjoy them. I know that my girls enjoyed them when I read them to them at bedtime.

—Benjamin Potter, May 3, 2011

The Book of 7 Truths – Calvin Miller

© 1997, HarperSanFransisco (an imprint of HarperCollins), New York

Calvin Miller is one of my faith heroes. He is also what is as close to a renaissance man to walk the ground in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He is a poet, writer, and artist. He has also been everything from a pastor to a professor in the realm of Christian life. Several years ago, he penned this little treasure—a story within a story.

Narrator Antón Beaufort recounts the events surrounding the loss of his legs at the age of ten. Those events were complicated by the Great Depression which pressured his parents to move the small family from their Louisiana farm to the jobless factories of Chicago and the north. The promise of work and sustenance eludes the family and throws them into the path of Hajji Rhovee—an old turbaned doctor who appears in their lives only to leave copies of a little red book. In the book, is the story of Hajji’s youth. A tale that encourages and challenges people of the Christian faith what their faith is all about. The seven truths:

1. Follow Only the Guide Who’s Been Where You Want to Go
2. The Task Ahead of You Is not as Great as the Power within You
3. You Cannot Help People if You Are Always with People
4. Happiness Is a Choice, Misery Is an Option
5. Wisdom Lives Only on the Far Side of Pain
6. Never Love Life More Than the Reason It Was Given to You
7. Stop Living Only When You Die

As tales go, the story within the story is the more compelling of the two tales. The occasion for the retelling of Hajji’s journey to help a village he did not want to help is more predictable and serves simply as the opportunity to hear the real story—Hajji’s story. If all you read is the chapters in which Hajji’s little red book is recorded, you’ll be glad you did. Find a copy of The Book of 7 Truths and enjoy.

4½ out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, January 27, 2011

O Shepherd, Where Art Thou? – Calvin Miller

© 2006, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville

In the inspiring fashion of The Sermon Maker: Tales of a Transformed Preacher, Calvin Miller takes his readers down another worn-out path for many pastors—pastoral ministry, namely the task of caring for the parishioners. Employing the fictional Sam, again, Miller addresses the issues faced by many ministers who have struggled through years of leading a typical congregation, only to be jealous of the pastor down the street who is wowing the crowds.

In this new story, Sam finds himself seeking the advice of a nationally renowned preacher who leads a left-coast mega-church and advocates that every minister should delegate, delegate, delegate. In so doing, the preacher will find more time to think mega-thoughts, prepare mega-sermons, and build his own mega-church, with the people getting lost in the tidal wave of flash and show.

The book design might be at first distracting because of its unorthodox presentation. But just like this books predecessor, O Shepherd is a small volume with lots of volume. In the fictionalization of everyday pastoral life, Miller uses not an angel this time, but the ghost of one of the greats in Christian History—Richard Baxter of Kidderminster who advocated spending time being the shepherd of your sheep—to bring Sam back to the straight and narrow of being a pastor. Again the volume is rounded out with commentary on the left-hand pages with scholarly notes in the back.

While not as inspiring as The Sermon Maker, through the voice of Baxter Miller drives home some well-needed lessons for the pastor in these days of “bigger is better” church life. This is a welcome volume for any pastor’s library.

4 out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, May 27, 2010

The Sermon Maker – Calvin Miller

© 2002, Zondervan, Grand Rapids

At a recent conference I had opportunity to rub elbows with one of my favorite Christian authors—Calvin Miller. A long time pastor, educator and writer, Miller embodies many of the characteristics I want when I grow up to be a real preacher. One of the best things that Miller does is communicate. And he has a desire to see all preachers do that better and better. And so he has created some short volumes to inspire the pastor to be the best pastor he can be. This is the first of those volumes.

One of the great things about reading Miller is that you never know what you’re going to get—much like Forest Gump’s proverbial box of chocolates. Within the 150 or so pages of this book you will encounter the fictional story of Sam, the beleaguered pastor who is rediscovering how his call to preach can take him beyond the typical mundanity (I know, I know: not a word) of three points and a poem cleverly alliterated for ease in memorization. Sam inspires the minister to re-visit his calling and so refresh his exposition.

The story of Sam is worth the price of admission in and of itself, especially as he interacts with Sermoniel the Angel of Homiletics. But Miller throws in commentary that allows the reader to dive deeper into the why of preaching via the story pattern. And the author puts a cherry on top of his sweet volume by including scholarly endnotes, if only to prove that he did his homework in the writing.

I must admit, I almost passed up this book because of the unorthodox packaging – story on the right-hand page, commentary on the left, with notes at the end of the book – but once I got into the reading, I found it wasn’t distracting at all. I also found that this design allowed to read just the story for continuity’s sake; just the commentary for clarification; or combine the reading to see how each relates to the other.

My recommendation for this book goes out to pastors who are caught in the grind of weekly cranking out lackluster sermons, to those who are looking for a new take on the old art of sermon-writing that will bring life back to their pulpit ministry, or to ministers who find themselves being weighed down by the monotony of taking on their own “Emma Johnsons” week after week. If you’d like to see your pastor revive the life in his sermons, you might consider gifting him this book.

5 out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, May 25, 2010