Karla J Bellinger - Connecting Pulpit and Pew: Breaking Open the Conversation about Catholic Preaching

This book grew from the authors national empirical study of Catholic young people who said Preaching Matters. How to make preaching better is about connecting. Whether pew-sitter or preacher, read and share this book if you want to open the conversation about how important preaching is to the spiritual life of your community.

Fred A. Baumer, Adjunct Professor of Preaching
St. Johns School of Theology
Collegeville, Minnesota

With her passionate desire to connect pulpits with pews, Bellinger opens the dialogue by interviewing countless parishioners young and old and by giving voice as well to Catholic priests and deacons. Doing so she provides the models and sets the pace for what needs to happen to bridge the gap between parishioner and preacher long before they enter their churches. Her academic research, together with her pastoral understanding, contributes well to her suggested directives inviting others to enter the dialogue that may produce Catholic preaching that is truly conversional.

Msgr. James T. Telthorst, DMin
Archdiocese of St. Louis

Bellinger has travelled the nation trying to crack the loud silence that exists between Catholic preachers and their parishioners, with a special attentiveness to youth. In this book, she reports her discoveries, but perhaps even more important, she shows us how to continue the conversation in our own communities. The discussion questions posed at the end of the book arealoneworth the price of the whole. They promise to provoke meaningful conversations at the local level that could substantially bolster the quality of preaching in the U.S.

Ann M. Garrido, Associate Professor of Homiletics
Aquinas Institute of Theology

Feel like there is a huge cavernous divide between the pulpit and the pew? If you want to close the gap, this is the book. Its historical and contemporary, it includes quantitative and qualitative research, you hear what preachers want and pew sitters desire. Gather a group of parishioners, share the questions in the back, become a listener who gives feedback, and feel the love grow. This is adult faith formation at its finest.

Leland Nagel, Executive Director
National Conference for Catechetical Leadership

Cover design by Stefan Killen Design. Cover art Thinkstock.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.

2014 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint Johns Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bellinger, Karla.

Connecting pulpit and pew : breaking open the conversation about Catholic preaching / Karla Bellinger.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8146-3769-2 ISBN 978-0-8146-3794-4 (ebook)

1. Preaching. 2. Catholic ChurchDoctrines. 3. Catholic ChurchUnited StatesHistory21st century. I. Title.

BV4211.3.B365 2014

251.0088'282dc23

2013050529

For Sophie and Samadhi,
who have blessed my life with joy.