Telling the Whole Story: Reading and Preaching Old Testament Stories

Telling the Whole Story is both a book about preaching and reading the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. John C. Holbert (PhD in Hebrew Bible) was a longtime teacher of preaching and Hebrew Bible at Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University having retired in 2012 after thirty-three years. In this volume he combines his two skills of careful narrative reading and imaginative story preaching to offer the first comprehensive look at this particular kind of sermon proclamation. The reader will also find here an introduction to the long history of story preaching in the history of the church as well as a primer both in ways to read the narratives more effectively and ways to preach several varieties of story sermons. At the heart of this book four narratives from the Hebrew Bible are exegeted and are accompanied by four story sermons based on those texts: Genesis 2-3; 1 Samuel 15; Judges 4; and Jonah. The goal of the book is to help preachers who are looking for effective ways to proclaim the gospel using narrative texts from the Hebrew Bible to allow the rich stories of the texts to sound their ancient truth to the modern world John Holbert is a superb preacher of biblical narratives and a wonderful teacher of how to read the Bible and develop plot character and point of view. Stories have a danger of becoming mere entertainment but when he shakes the narrative tree of the Bible truths fall to the ground as fruit for the feeding of Gods people. --Paul Scott Wilson Professor of Homiletics Emmanuel College University of Toronto John Holbert is unsurpassed both as a narrative preacher and as a teacher of narrative preaching. Here he explains not only how to prepare a narrative sermon . . . but he provides case studies of four biblical texts in which he takes the reader from a masterful reading of the text to thinking about how to develop a narrative sermon and offering a sermon on the text. This kind of preaching will be life-giving in any congregation. --Ronald J. Allen Professor of Preaching and Gospels and Letters Christian Theological Seminary Holbert makes a compelling case for the inclusion of story preaching in the preachers repertoire. . . . He equips the reader to do far more than just admire the artistry of others. He gives us the interpretive tools to imitate it in our own preaching. This book offers several stunning story sermons from the Old Testament complete with exegetical insights and evaluation. It is a joy to read and put into practice a must-have for preachers and teachers of Scripture. --Alyce M. McKenzie Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University John C. Holbert is Lois Craddock Perkins Professor emeritus of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas. He is the author of Preaching Old Testament The Ten Commandments Preaching Job Preaching Creation and other texts that address the intersection between the Hebrew Bible and preaching.