Book Review—Telling God's Story

Reviewed by Robert Talley

Wright, John W. Telling God’s Story: Narrative Preaching for Christian Formation. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007. Paperback, 264 pages. $18.00

(Review copy courtesy of InterVarsity Press)

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Special Features: Index

ISBNs: 0830827404 / 9780830827404

LCCN: BV4235.S76W75 2007

DCN: 251

Table of Contents & Book Excerpts

Subjects: Preaching, Narrative Preaching, Hermeneutics

John W. Wright is Professor of Theology and Christian Scripture at Point Loma Nazarene University (San Diego, CA). He is the pastor of Church of the Nazarene in Mid City (San Diego, CA).

The title is easily misread. The book does not deal with preaching through the narrative sections of the Word of God. The pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Mid City proposes a style of pastoral preaching and care designed to confront the church with “God’s Story” and the church’s need to become a part of that story. He believes there is much wrong with contemporary Christianity and desires to reform it by changing some of the presuppositions pastors address when preaching. He is on target with much of his evaluation, and there is much of interest and profit for the preacher who is preaching for biblical transformation. One wonders about some of his historical evaluations of preaching (especially of Puritan preaching), but those minor things add interest to the book, even for those who might disagree with his evaluation.

By the author’s own admission, this “book ranges far and wide” (p. 12). The first two chapters analyze what is wrong with the church and with preaching today. This analysis consists of hermeneutical, historical, cultural, and theological arguments intended to reveal that there is much wrong with Christianity in the United States.

The next two chapters describe a “homiletic of turning” and give example sermons with intermixed explanations of how the different phases of the sermon bring to and precede from the “tragic moment.” Although this section of the book is less controversial than the first two chapters, this part of the book would be most valuable for the young preacher who wants to learn how to construct a sermon that will have intellectual and emotional impact. This is not the only way to construct a good sermon, and the author does not claim this. He does a fine job of showing various ways to use this “homiletic of turning.”

The final chapter shows ways that congregational life can provide opportunities for more effective “tragic moment” sermons. The author uses the Lord’s Supper as the one action of congregational life that exemplifies what a church is supposed to be in an evil, God-forsaken world. Forgiveness and reconciliation as well as sharing and hospitality toward others are functions of the body of Christ that make it different from the world. These specifically are areas where the “tragic moment” within the congregation can become reality for the church, who both preach and practice them biblically.

Dr. Wright points out that many Christians are trying to live the wrong story. They go to church to have their needs met rather than to be transformed by Christ. The sermons they expect to hear always have a happy conclusion. Not that there are no difficult moments, but like I Love Lucy, they expect everything to turn out all right in the end. They leave knowing that all is right with the world. There is no transformation of their lives or confrontation with the dark truth of their hearts.

The author suggests that some sermons should have an element of tragedy like Romeo and Juliet. Obviously, comparing Lucille Ball with Shakespeare gives the tragic moment in preaching an aura of respectability. Perhaps this is necessary to sell his ideas to some who preach too often to felt needs. The strength of the tragic moment is that it gives the ability to live afterward more realistically and honestly. His illustration of a woman being able to live more honestly after discovering that her husband was a liar and cheat (p. 42) is actually quite powerful in supporting his argument for the use of the “homiletic of turning” or “tragic moment” in a sermon. This moment’s intention is to bring repentance and conversion.

Why is it that people go to church week after week and remain earthly bound? They live out a story, supported in their minds by scriptural evidence, emphasizing the interior life of the individual. The author writes, “Instead of God’s story of the redemption of all creation, the Bible was narrowed to the story of personal salvation” (p. 53). Dr. Wright quotes Harry Stout, who describes this as the sin-salvation-service narrative. The church diminishes in importance and becomes a service provider rather than a body of believers. The “tragic moment’s” intention is to help transform believers into a body by changing their presuppositions from an individual to a corporate understanding of who they are.

This is not the only “narrative” Dr. Wright condemns. Although he does not use this phrase, we know these sermons as “God and Country” sermons. America is an elect nation. Although this is a relatively minor part of this book, I concur that the Puritan desire to create a theocracy seems to have expanded in each generation to include America as a whole and has been detrimental in various ways over the past centuries.

He finds that both the individual narrative and the national narrative arise from Puritanism, which set the context for the development of these trends in American Protestantism. It is actually quite amusing to think that Jonathan Edwards through George Whitefield were the forerunners of Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. The author finds that George Whitefield was especially detrimental in that he “shifted the location of salvation from God’s action in Christ to the personal experience of the individual” (p. 59).

Although his case is perhaps overstated, it is easy to see the truth behind his criticism. “Salvation … was not understood as individual participation within the biblical narrative that told how the God of creation made a promise to Abraham that was fulfilled in Jesus in order to bring about a witness in the life of the church as a foretaste of the new creation” (p. 55). Whether this was true of the Puritans or not, this evaluation is all too often true in our times.

The cure, although presented creatively, is perhaps not as innovative as it might seem at first. Actually preaching the Word in its properly understood context will give the pastor many opportunities to deal with the tragic moment. After all, the church seen in the epistles often does not appear to be the same animal we have today. Preaching to the church the epistles written to the church as if they applied to the church body should naturally lead to an elevation of the church as opposed to the individual without swinging to the opposite extreme of negating the worth of the individual. Preaching Old Testament passages often and in their context would also keep us from losing sight of the story that God is writing.

This book has whetted my historical curiosity. It has confirmed my commitment to expository preaching of the whole counsel of God built not on a theological system but on an understanding of the text of Scripture itself. It has also given some valuable models to help make me a more effective preacher.

Robert Talley is pastor of the Fellowship Bible Church (Castleton, VT). He and his wife, Dawn, have two children. They served 11 years in church planting in German-speaking Europe (Munich, the Austrian Alps, and East Berlin) through Baptist Mid-Missions (Cleveland, OH). Robert is currently working on a Master of Ministry degree from Temple Baptist Seminary (Chattanooga, TN).