* An excellent introductory text, this is the first volume in the new Elements of Preaching series * Helps preachers discern their own "working theology" as it is expressed in their sermon * Brief bibliographies accompany each chapter

* Provides a specific and disciplined set of tools for study and analysis of contexts * Helps preachers to discern values, meanings, and worldviews in their contexts * Keyed to online sermon samples and other Web-based features to enhance teaching

Shaping the Claim helps the preacher discover the core of the message to be preached - the sermonic "claim." In order to be effective, says McMickle, a sermon needs to address the hearers at three distinct levels; the head or the intellect, the heart or passion and conviction, and the hand or an expected and desired response. In order to discover the biblical "claim" that a sermon should make upon a particular congregation at a particular time, McMickle presents a helpful three-step process: (1) What? (2) So What? and (3) Now What? The book is keyed to online sermon samples and other...

This volume provides preaching students and clergy with introductory knowledge of current approaches and methods in biblical studies, familiarity with the questions and aims that pertain to them, and facility with various methods of biblical exegesis.