Sermons preached before a congregation are only one way people hear messages of faith. Whether the listener is seated in a pew or listening to a podcast or a book about faith, most of the faith-talk people hear is shaped by a speaker’s faith sensibility. And those faith sensibilities can generally be distinguished as four distinctly different “voices” of preaching. Understanding what these voices are, how they differ in purpose as well as design, and how excellence in each voice can make for greater authenticity in communicating faith is what this book is about. The author canvases the tradition of American preaching called homiletics by drawing together religious, social, and cultural concerns that have given birth to each new North American way of preaching about faith in God. The book provides a map of classic and contemporary homileticians and what their understanding looks like in communication practice. It is a book about why preaching and teaching the Gospel matters in whatever form it takes. It is a book for those who need a map.

Endorsements

“Some works get even better with age. In his expanded Four Voices of Preaching, Professor Reid instructs and preaches with impressive wisdom and whimsy. Reid’s provocative work transforms homiletics into a necessary and welcome guest for both church pulpits and classroom discussions. He speaks truth to readers with clarity, cogency, and urgency. For anyone seeking to communicate the Gospel, his delineation of four voices, Teaching, Encouraging, Sage, and Testifying, sound a clarion call for sharing good news in fresh ways. Reid’s work provides an indispensable map for preaching one’s faith and witness.”

—Terry Lindvall, PhD, C.S. Lewis Endowed Chair in Communication and Christian Thought, Virginia Wesleyan University

“The Four Voices of Preaching invites us to reflect on preaching as faith-being-voiced. Reid shows how faith-communicators engage in the rhetorical tasks of meaning something and doing something when they speak about God. He argues that these tasks have changed as we have travelled beyond modernity, and he helps us chart a new course in today’s world, a path that leads beyond the pulpit into new places where preaching is occurring. This is a major revision of an already important book by a leading thinker of preaching and is the kind of deep dive into the wisdom of current homiletics that is most needed today.”

—John S. McClure, PhD, Charles G. Finney Emeritus Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School

“Preaching matters. Preaching is public, personal, and proceeds from faith to faith. In The Four Voices of Preaching, Dr. Reid maps a genealogy of North American preaching from colonial days to today, inviting us into a matrix of homiletic types through which sermons—formal and informal—respond to the currents, commitments, and cultural milieux. From antiquity, homiletic works in league with rhetoric as an art of conversation already in progress—we respond sermonically and expect a response. Reid explains why, providing a well-established vantage point from which new and seasoned students of homiletics can better situate their service to God within their own faith communities, commitments, and theological frameworks.”

—Calvin L. Troup, PhD, President, Geneva College. Author of Temporality, Eternity, and Wisdom: The Rhetoric of Augustine’s Confessions

“Dr. Reid has done every preacher and teacher a great favor by bringing us back to the importance of cultural context in all public communication. His examples are wonderfully insightful, helping us to reframe our communication for a new era of high- and low-tech discourse. He also highlights many rich sources of cultural critique that we can use to enhance our communication for a culturally diverse time such as this.”

—Quentin Schultze, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Calvin University. Author of An Essential Guide to Public Speaking: Serving Your Audience with Faith, Skill, and Virtue

“Drawing on the rich resources of rhetoric, sociology, and communication studies, Reid helps preachers to identify their understanding of who they are in the pulpit and what the goal is of that sermon/homily/message. He reminds us that one size does not fit all. There is not one kind of message, not one approach, not one voice. Given that challenge, however, preachers must reflect upon and discern who they are, who their community expects them to be, and who God would have them to be. The Four Voices of Preaching is a wonderful resource for preachers as they explore these important questions.”

—Lucy Lind Hogan, PhD, Professor Emerita of Preaching and Worship, Wesley Theological Seminary

“The Four Voices of Preaching: Communicating Faith in a Connected World helps both speakers and listeners appreciate the seminal importance of sharing The Word in a culture increasingly dependent on technology. The voices of teaching, encouraging, sage insights, and testifying offer insightful perspectives for understanding how to communicate the good news, whether at church, in books, via blogs, or other digital forums. This skillfully crafted book demonstrates how the classical roots of rhetoric help us better understand the contemporary culture of congregations that desperately need messages of hope, joy, peace, and love.”

—Steven A. Beebe, PhD, Regents’ and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Texas State University. Author of C. S. Lewis and the Craft of Communication

“The original version of The Four Voices of Preaching has such a deep foothold in preaching that Robert Reid has now significantly updated this work by interacting with the most recent discussions in preaching. The book now serves to help new generations identify what preachers are trying to do when they step into the pulpit, look into the eyes of the congregation, and take that deep breath to begin the sermon. Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of scholarship in preaching, Reid names the theological, rhetorical, and homiletical roots of each voice of preaching—teaching, encouraging, sage, and testifying. He then situates each in is cultural context and explains how the voice comes to expression. Sample sermons illustrate the voices in operation. In addition to introducing readers to the four voices, this remarkable work is a tour de force of the theories and practices in contemporary preaching.”

—Ronald J. Allen, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Preaching, and Gospels and Letters, Christian Theological Seminary

“In this book, I believe Reid has given the academy and the church an invaluable resource for the study of preaching and its practice. I found two elements especially appealing and worthy of recommendation: the book’s thorough founding in rhetorical theory and the book’s illuminating use of the history of preaching. For instance, the way Reid clarifies the rhetorical strategies and techniques underpinning the preaching of Finney, or the methods of persuasion used by the four voices, was very enlightening and gave me ample material I can use in my classes to help students see the ways rhetorical principles work in practice. And that brings up another aspect of this book that I also enjoyed: its practical nature for those who preach. One example is how Reid provides a table in each chapter of how to organize homiletic reasoning using that voice along with an example sermon. This is an excellent resource every pastor and teacher of homiletics should have in their library.”

—John Katsion, PhD, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Northwest Missouri State University

“People who read the first edition of The Four Voices of Preaching will benefit significantly from exploring Reid’s augmented work, particularly his insightful and timely analysis of faith talk as it has evolved beyond the pulpit in the digital age. This expanded scope extends the benefits of the book beyond traditional pulpit preaching to include podcasters, preaching coaches, bloggers, and other articulators of faith in our contemporary culture. Reid’s anthropology of preaching is both philosophical and practical, making it an indispensable resource for pedagogy as well as for the personal libraries of preachers and other faith communicators.”

—Melanie Bockmann, PhD Candidate in Homiletics, Wholelife Church Worship and Liturgy Pastor, Orlando, Florida

“When The Four Voices of Preaching was first published, I celebrated, ‘Bob Reid is a masterful thinker who has honed his craft to perfection in this volume. Four Voices is more than a service to seasoned preachers; it is the first book for all reading in homiletics and the map to an authentic voice.’ The first volume has proven over and again to be an essential guide for ministers who are serious about the art of preaching. The new edition, which deepens Reid’s analysis beyond the pew to include the faith talk of pulpit, print, and media platforms, is cause for renewed elation.”

—Rev. David Fleer, PhD, Special Advisor to the President, Rochester University

“As a preacher and communication professor, I found Robert Reid’s thoroughly researched book an exceptional resource for examining the interrelationship between my two professions. Reid’s four preaching voices—Teaching, Encouraging, Sage, and Testifying—are deftly outlined in his Matrix of Contemporary Christian Voices and further explained in summary charts of strategies for each voice. The matrix distinctions are an invaluable resource for any preacher searching for his or her authentic voice, which, Reid asserts, can become an essential rhetorical resource extending beyond the sanctuary walls to faith talk in all corners of the new media. Reading Four Voices with its interweaving of astute historical research reflecting changes in homiletic styles over the years, bolstered by engaging writing, I found myself wishing for a seat in Reid’s Advanced Preaching course.”

—Rev. Terri Cornwell, PhD, Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Virginia University of Lynchburg

“As an educator and an ordained priest, I found The Four Voices of Preaching illuminating. It will be resource that readers will return to time and time again as they seek to integrate their faith with an academic appreciation of how different people communicate faith. Finally, I take from reading this work a deeper appreciation of the rhetorical foundations of preaching in this country and a renewed challenge to my own presentation and articulation of the Gospel. It is rare to find an academic work that informs, inspires, and sometimes convicts its readers but this is what all will encounter in this book.”

—Rev. Thomas J. Carmody, PhD, Professor of Communication Studies Vanguard University

“The voice of the preacher, that understanding of the purpose behind the sermon and the identity of the one who preaches it, is one of the most foundational aspects of homiletical pedagogy and practice. Reid continues to provide the most careful exploration of this concept in this new edition of his ground-breaking The Four Voices of Preaching. He gives new attention to how his paradigm has developed over the last two decades by drawing attention to the influence of the continuing disestablishment of religion in America and how it has shaped and reshaped homiletics. This discussion of how the preacher’s expressed faith intersects with cultural cognizance remains vitally relevant to the continuation of the church’s mission, and I look forward to continue using Reid’s updated model in my practice of teaching.”

—Rob O’Lynn, DMin, Director of Graduate Bible Programs and Dean of Distance Education, Kentucky Christian University

“In this masterful work, Prof. Reid provides a rhetorical understanding of the various voices evident in the modern American pulpit which not only enables a better understanding of other fellow preachers but, more significantly, one’s own approach to homiletics.”

—G. Brandon Knight, PhD, Assistant Professor of Communication, William Carey University

“Whether preaching from the pulpit, or conversing with a friend over coffee, this book is for you. Reid argues that it is not just speaking God’s Truth that matters, but how we say it and how long we say it. Reid helps us understand that the Truth we speak must be combined with our consistent credibility (ethos) and our sustained relationship (identification) with the listener over time if we are to have any significant influence with them. As Reid states, ‘it is a preacher’s voice that endures across a ministry of messages preached’ that ‘is the most enduring way preaching matters.’ This book will help everyone to become a more competent communicator in speaking the Truth of God with others.”

—William L. Mullen, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication Studies, Shorter University