Matthew D. Kim - Preaching to People in Pain: How Suffering Can Shape Your Sermons and Connect with Your Congregation

Frederick Buechner famously wrote that the preacher should not be like the captain of a ship who is the only one aboard who... does not know that the waves are twenty feet high. Preaching to pain clearly indicates that we understand that there are waves. Confessing our own pain as part of that process indicates that we have had to navigate the waves too. Matthew Kim addresses the waves and rides them with his readers to teach us all how to navigate lifes storms by the light of our Saviors heart.

Bryan Chapell , pastor emeritus, Grace Presbyterian Church; president emeritus, Covenant Seminary; author of Christ-Centered Preaching

Our congregations need not only truthful exegesis and engaging preaching but also emotional discipleship. Each week, the people in our pews carry with them loss, grief, and suffering, and they long for a way to meet God in the midst of their struggles. When sermons focus only on the victory of the Christian life, this makes walking the way of Jesus more difficult for those who are in pain. Kim helps those of us who preach to address various types of suffering with wisdom, compassion, and the hope of Christ. He helps us take up the holy responsibility of proclaiming that every part of our livesincluding our sorrow and painis something that we address as a church and is, more importantly, a place to encounter God.

Tish Harrison Warren , Anglican priest; author of Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night

Matthew Kim, an experienced pastor, preacher, and teacher of preaching, has written an insightful and beautifully instructive book on preaching to people who experience painon all sorts of levels. Kim deftly demonstrates the preachers responsibility to understand his or her own personal pain and the pain of his or her listeners. As a result, the preacher is enabled to empathize with them and out of her own pain preach the hope of the Scriptures to them. Preaching to People in Pain is an important contribution to pastoral ministry, to preaching, and to the field of homiletics. Kim is to be commended for addressing this tender and fragile but often overlooked aspect of the preaching task.

Scott M. Gibson , professor of preaching, David E. Garland Chair of Preaching, and director of the PhD program in preaching, Truett Seminary, Baylor University

Preaching to People in Pain could also be called Preaching to Humans . In a culture which makes us believe something is wrong with us when we experience suffering, preachers have a choice: to provide shallow promises or to trust in the truth of our storythat resurrection only comes after death. With wisdom and courage Matthew Kim invites preachers to name their own pain for the sake of their own health and the health of their congregations. Were presented with the hopeful possibility that together we have the capacity for the challenges of life and that as we face them, we find the truth of our story in solidarity with our suffering (and resurrected) Lord.

Mandy Smith , pastor and author of The Vulnerable Pastor and Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith beyond the Baggage of Western Culture