"Luther called it the living voice of the gospel. Whenever people proclaim the mighty acts of God's salvation, whenever people hear the good news of God's love---whenever these things happen, we lay claim to Jesus Christ, and we are changed. In telling the story and in hearing it, the story becomes ours. God's story is our story.
"This book is about the relationships that are forged as the Word is proclaimed. What do preachers feel about preaching? What are the dimensions of the tender relationship between the preacher and the listener between the Word and the hearer of the Word? Some who have written for these pages are telling us why they listen, how vital is this Word for life, how life is changed when the Word is proclaimed with power, how they recognize themselves in the story and say, "Amen!" Others tell us why they preach and what they trust happens to people as they preach.
"This book is about the holiness of proclaiming the gospel. I have been the host of Lutheran Vespers for a little more than two years now, the fifth preacher and host in the past fifty years. We receive several hundred letters every week from listeners, and know them to be members of many denominations (or of no church at all), every age group, every marital status. The audience is broad. It is the preaching and the listening that makes a spiritual bond among us. And so the idea of this book. Indirectly, it will honor the role that Lutheran Vespers has played for half a century, preaching, existing by the preaching and the listening only. But most importantly, this book proposes a meeting of the minds and souls of the preacher and the listener during this elemental event when God's Word is the bond between them." by Walter Wangerin Jr. (from the preface)
Contents:
Preface by Walter Wangerin Jr.
Foreword by H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Listening for the Breath of Prayer by Terry L. Bowes
It Is Jesus by Herbert W. Chilstrom
Over Mere Words the Holy Spirit Hovers by John Vannorsdall
This Story Is Mine by Karris Golden
I Long to Speak Jesus by Susan Briehl
Come Over and Help Us by Conrad M. Thompson
This Is Most Certainly True! by William E. Diehl
Hearing One Another into Speech by Barbara Lundblad
I Love to Tell the Story by Richard A. Jensen
God Speaks to Doubters, Too by Barbara Berry-Bailey
Gathered to Hear the Living Voice by Gail McGrew Eifrig
Speaking Is Our Holy Task by April Ulring Larson
God's Love Story Is Dialogue by Walter Wangerin Jr.