Making Your Way to the Pulpit: Hethcock's Homiletics Goes to the Parish

Making Your Way to the Pulpit is a book for beginning preachers for preachers who will never have a seminary course called homiletics (the art of preaching) for preachers who studied homiletics with William Hethcock and want a review and for all preachers who are looking for a tested reliable approach to sermon preparation. In short this is a book for those who preach regularly or occasionally and would like a clear guide for making their way to the pulpit. At the School of Theology (SofT) University of the South Sewanee Tennessee the Rev. Dr. William H. Hethcock directed field education from 1979 to 1985 and taught homiletics from 1985 until his retirement in 1997. After retiring he continued to teach homiletics on semester contracts at the SofT and the Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS). He remains active as a teacher speaker on the subject of preaching and preacher. Assimilating the work of other scholars Hethcock developed his own process for approaching sermon preparation on a weekly basis. This book summarizes and describes the Hethcock method. When followed his process reliably gets the preacher to the pulpit with a biblical proclamation that resonates with individuals in todays congregations. Jerrilee Parker Lewallen in Making Your Way to the Pulpit enlightens and informs the process of basic sermon preparation and delivery showing the preacher step by step what is essential and how to achieve it. Based on the principles of William Hethcocks methodology and example Making Your Way to the Pulpit is an essential handbook and preserver of a tradition that can serve to enliven not only sermons but lives. --Isabel Anders author of Becoming Flame and The Faces of Friendship William Hethcock is a master pedagogue in homiletics who for a generation taught seminarians a reliable path from their study to the pulpit. Jerrilee Lewallen has given her preaching colleagues a great gift by making Hethcocks approach available to a wide audience. The wisdom and experience found on every page of this volume will simply make ones preaching better. --J. Neil Alexander Bishop of Atlanta and former seminary professor of liturgics and homiletics Preaching is an art but can be improved by discipline structure and guidance. Bill Hethcock a master homiletics professor has distilled his decades of experience into the simple straightforward and effective four box process of sermon preparation which this book details . . . Following Fred Craddock Hethock also believes that with todays lack of respect for authority the purpose of the sermon is not to get something said; it is to get something heard-an inductive not a deductive approach. This book will help any preacher from the novice to the seasoned pro. --A. Gary Shilling Founder of The Episcopal Preaching Foundation Jerrilee Parker Lewallen formerly a lawyer is a retired Episcopal priest who lives with her husband Tom in Sewanee Tennessee. She was a student of William Hethcock who taught homiletics for many years at the Episcopal seminary located in Sewanee.