Mastering Contemporary Preaching. By Bill Hybels, Stuart Briscoe, and Haddon Robinson. Mastering Ministry Series. Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1989. 171 pages. $12.95.  

Preachers have to be alert in order to keep up with the challenges and rapid changes of our culture. In Mastering Contemporary Preaching, three men known for communicating in today’s language share how they handle the difficult aspects of contemporary preaching.  

Haddon Robinson, a seminary president who taught homiletics for nineteen years, writes chapters titled “What Authority Does a Preacher Have Anymore?” “Blending Bible Content and Life Application,” “Money: When You Move to Meddlin” and “Bringing Yourself into the Pulpit.”  

Bill Hybels, founding pastor of a Chicago-area church which has grown to twelve thousand in average attendance in fifteen years, shares what he has learned about “Speaking to the Secularized Mind.” He also writes about preaching on sex, preaching for total commitment, and staying on target by evaluating our preaching.  

Stuart Briscoe, a pastor in suburban Milwaukee, shares what he has learned about “Planning a Preaching Menu,” “Filling the Sermon with Interest,” “Dealing with Controversial Subjects,” and “The Subtle Temptations of Preaching.”  

These dozen brief chapters are lively, practical and encouraging. Regular readers of Leadership will find the approach familiar, since half of the chapters have previously been published there. Mastering Contemporary Preaching is not a comprehensive approach to preaching, but it is an excellent source of information about several vexing aspects of contemporary preaching.