Welcome to The Practices of Christian Preaching!

Welcome to the eSource site for The Practices of Christian Preaching. Here you will find videos related to each chapter as well as learning activities, student reflection questions, and discussion questions for professors.

Book Trailer

Collaborator Biographies

Dr. Jared E. Alcántara (Author)

Dr. Jared Alcántara is Associate Professor of Preaching and holder of the Paul W. Powell Endowed Chair in Preaching. An ordained Baptist minister, he has served as a youth pastor, associate pastor, and teaching pastor in Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, and New Jersey. Prior to Truett, from 2014-2018, he served as an associate professor of homiletics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.

Dr. Alcántara is passionate about equipping students to preach God’s Word in ways that are faithful, effective, clear, creative, and inspiring. His teaching and research interests include global south preaching, cultural and intercultural engagement, and the role of race and ethnicity in preaching, especially in Latino/a and African American contexts. His publications include: Learning from a Legend: What Gardner C. Taylor Can Teach Us About Preaching (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016), Crossover Preaching: Improvisational-Intercultural Homiletics in Conversation with Gardner C. Taylor (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015), "The Last Pulpit Prince: Gardner C. Taylor" Preaching (July-August 2014), "Past Masters: Sandy Frederick Ray" Preaching (March-April 2014), "Counting the Costs of Perpetual Connection" Media Development 42, no. 2 (April 2012), and "Perpetually Connected?: The Effects and Implications of Ambient Technology on Christian Worshippers" Africanus Journal 3, no. 1 (Aprial 2011): 5-14. Dr. Alcántara has also reviewed books for journals such as Teaching Technology and Religion, Koinonia, Trinity Journal, and The Journal for the Evangelical Homiletics Society.

Dr. Alcántara plays piano, enjoys disc golf, and is a rabid Philadelphia Eagles fan. He lives in the Waco area with his wife, Jennifer, and their three daughters.

Dr. Ahmi Lee

Ahmi Lee is Assistant Professor of Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary.

As a “third culture kid” born in South Korea, raised in Japan, and educated in an American international school in Japan, Lee’s unique background and experience enrich her understanding and passion for preaching in the global church context. Her book Preaching God's Grand Drama (Baker Academic) offers a fresh approach to preaching that helps listeners see themselves as actors in God's ongoing grand drama. Her research interests include preaching as a theological practice of the church, biblical hermeneutics, missions, and the formation of preacher. Lee has contributed to various journals such as Trinity Journal, Restoration Quarterly, and Word and World.

Prior to coming to Fuller, Lee served in both monoethnic and multiethnic congregations in the Chicago area in the capacities of teaching pastor, college/young adults pastor, and children’s program director. Her many years of pastoral experience also includes teaching, directing, and speaking at churches, parachurch organizations, and conferences in diverse countries and contexts. Today she remains an active preacher and speaker worldwide.

Dr. Kenyatta R. Gilbert

The Reverend Dr. Kenyatta R. Gilbert is Professor of Homiletics at the Howard University School of Divinity. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from Baylor University and both his M.Div. and Ph.D. in Practical Theology (Homiletics) from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Dr. Gilbert specializes in the history, theory, and practice of African American preaching. His research focuses on the theology and rhetoric of prophetic preaching, African American religion, hermeneutical theory, and constructive practical theology. He is author of The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching (Fortress Press), A Pursued Justice: Black Preaching from the Great Migration to Civil Rights (Baylor Press), Exodus Preaching: Crafting Sermons about Justice and Hope (Abingdon Press), and is a contributing columnist to Sojournors Magazine

Dr. Gilbert is the recipient of Louisville Institute’s First Book Grant for Minority Scholars and Howard University’s Emerging Scholar Award and Andrew Mellon Fellowship. He has served as faculty collaborator for HUSD’s Equipping the Saints: Promising Practices in Black Congregational Life, a national study funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Dr. Gilbert is an ordained Baptist minister and founder of The Preaching Project: Restoring Communities through Spoken Word ([www.thepreachingproject.org]), a website ministry promoting the nurture of the preaching life of ministers serving African American churches and communities. Prior to joining the Divinity School’s faculty in 2006, he served congregations in Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Kenya. Currently, he serves a congregation in Silver Spring, Maryland as an associate minister and practical theologian in residence.

Dr. Jerusha Matsen Neal

Professor Neal’s scholarly work examines the action of the Spirit on the performative borders of body and culture. Her research interests focus on postcolonial preaching, preaching and gender, and the implications of Mariology for a Spirit-dependent homiletic.

Neal is an ordained American Baptist minister with broad ecumenical experience, most recently serving as a Global Ministries missionary to the Fiji Islands through the United Methodist Church. During her years in Fiji, she served as dean of studies at Davuilevu Theological College, the oldest theological seminary in that nation. Professor Neal’s teaching at Davuilevu integrated embodied exegetical approaches to biblical texts with an Oceanic emphasis on holistic education. Her reflections on biblical reception in the Fijian context are forthcoming in Bible in Folklore Worldwide (2017) and the International Journal of Homiletics. A former actress and playwright, she has also authored a collection of dramatic monologues, Blessed: Monologues for Mary (Cascade Books).

Neal has spent her ministry preaching in cross-cultural spaces and bridging denominational communities. God’s work in these in-between locations has convinced her that preaching matters now more than ever. Her forthcoming book, The Overshadowed Preacher (Wm. B. Eerdmans), asks the sticky question of what we mean when we say preaching is “anointed.” It challenges preachers to leave behind false shadows and be overshadowed by the Spirit of God.

Serving as keynote preacher for such events as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, the Young Preacher’s Festival and the Homegrown North Carolina Women’s Preaching Festival, Neal is committed to encouraging the voices of young preachers—and particularly the voices of women—in the risky proclamation of gospel hope.

Dr. Matthew D. Kim

Before joining the faculty at Gordon Conwell in 2012, Dr. Kim brought over 10 years of preaching and teaching experience to his role at Gordon-Conwell. Most recently, he served as senior pastor of Logos Central Chapel in Denver, Colorado.

He is the author of several books, including Preaching with Cultural Intelligence: Understanding the People Who Hear Our Sermons (Baker Academic), which was named the 2018 Preaching Magazine Book of the Year. His other books include, A Little Book for New Preachers: Why and How to Study Homiletics (IVP Academic), Finding Our Voice: A Vision for Asian North American Preaching (Lexham), Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four Views on Preaching Today (coeditor, Baker Academic), The Big Idea Companion to Preaching and Teaching (coeditor, Baker Academic, forthcoming), and Preaching to People in Pain: Sharing Our Suffering in Sermons (Baker Academic, forthcoming). His scholarly interests include hermeneutics, homiletics, pastoral ministry, racial reconciliation, pain and suffering, cultural exegesis, and the Asian American church.

He is a past president of the Evangelical Homiletics Society and serves on the editorial board of The Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society. Dr. Kim is a featured preacher and contributor on PreachingToday.com and facilitates the Preacher’s Book Club through the Center for Preaching. He has been invited to give lectureships on preaching at Moody Bible Institute, Tyndale University College & Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He speaks regularly at churches, conferences, and retreats.

Dr. Kim and his wife, Sarah, have three children.