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Good sermons worth preserving in print

Don Petker

A Month of Sundays – Making Sense of Things Earle W. Fike Jr. Waterloo, Ont./Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2001. 256 pp. $22.29

As a novice preacher, I routinely read other people’s sermons while preparing my own. I find it instructive to examine how others engage texts and apply them in real life settings. This practice can be both intimidating and encouraging. At times I marvel at the insight and creativity of other preachers and wonder if I will ever arrive at such competency. Other times I am encouraged when my own ideas are affirmed by someone else’s sermon. Occasionally, I come across really bad sermons and am relieved to realize that all preachers occasionally have off days. And so I make this a regular part of my sermon preparation.

To that end, A Month of Sundays is a welcome addition. Earle Fike Jr., a long-time Church of the Brethren pastor, has compiled 32 of his favourite sermons. Organized loosely into four sections, the sermons cover a good cross-section of the Bible and the Christian calendar. Indeed, nearly half of the sermons cite texts from both the Old and New Testaments. Fike is not a classical exegetical preacher. That is, he does not work through a text from beginning to end. Rather, he picks a particular theme and develops it in a practical, easy-flowing manner. Most of the sermons draw heavily on anecdotes and examples from the author’s life – sometimes almost to distraction. Nevertheless, the sermons are engaging and instructive.

I recommend this book for pastors and lay readers alike. It provides useful sermon fodder and makes good devotional reading. It also causes me to wonder why more of our Anabaptist/Mennonite/Mennonite Brethren preachers have not published some of their sermons. We have been blessed with many outstanding preachers over the years, but few of their sermons have made it into print. Is it our meekness that keeps us from publishing our sermons, or is it that we have not yet realized the value of such a practice? Perhaps this book will remind us that good sermons are worth preserving in print.

Don Petker is pastor of Selkirk (Man.) Community Church.

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Last modified April 17, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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