HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: Common Sense Preaching
Author: Dee Bowman
Cover Designer: Bob Nance
Publisher: Florida College Press, 1999
ISBN-13: 978-0967423104
ISBN-10: 0967423104
Related website: http://bookstore.floridacollege.edu/ (publisher)
Language level: 1
(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)
Recommended reading level: Older teens and adults
Rating: ***** 5 stars
(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
Disclosure: Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion. Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library. No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.
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Bowman, Dee. Common Sense Preaching (published by Florida College Press, 119 N. Glenn Arven Ave., Temple Terrace, FL 33617). Homiletics is the science of sermon preparation and delivery. When I was a student in college, I did not take a class in homiletics, but as a beginning preacher, I read and digested several books on the subject. Obviously, such a book is primarily a religious work, and it has not been my practice to review very many purely religious books on this blog. However, I consider the author of Common Sense Preaching to be a good friend and a great preacher. Dee Bowman was born at Estelline, TX, in 1934. After receiving a degree in communications from the University of Alabama, he worked for some twenty years in radio broadcasting. Then in 1971 he left the airwaves and began full-time preaching. In 1985 he was invited to teach homiletics to the upper division Bible students at Florida College (my alma mater) and continued for fourteen years.
In this book Bowman discusses qualifications to preach, types of sermons, preparing a sermon, style and personality, the audience, and the subject of rhetoric. Though he is somewhat older than I am, I began preaching in 1974, not that long after Dee, but he has a wealth of previous experience in communications that I did not when I started. I have now been preaching regularly for some 44 years. Why would I purchase and read such a book? Well, I believe that one is never too old to learn something new. Anyone who is currently a preacher, or who is thinking about becoming a preacher, or who just wants to develop his skills so that he can preach whenever the opportunity presents itself, will benefit from this book. It is a work that teaches how to balance form and substance with a reverential respect for both God’s will and God’s word.
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