Maybe you’re considering becoming a preacher? You have things you want to say, and ways you want to serve. But could you do it? ‘Should’ you do it?How can you tell if it’s a Call? Maybe you want to preach – and dread it.
 
Or perhaps you’re someone who has preached for decades. You want to break free from tired, tiring thought patterns? You have joy inside, which doesn’t show up in your preaching? Or are you’re bored by already knowing what you’re going to say next week? Perhaps you want to find the Bible ‘new’ again.
 
Being a preacher is not merely the task of developing and delivering a message. It is about who you are – how you live and serve, your presence among those to whom you preach. This book is about the mindful things and the practical things that being a preacher entails: things that new preachers may not know, and that seasoned preachers may forget. At root, it’s about two big questions:
 
• How do you speak considered truths and ideas in ways that listeners may clearly hear?
• How do you make sure that you damage no one in the process?
 
‘Everything I’ve learned, so far, about being a preacher is in this book,’ writes Lucy Berry. ‘All the practical and reflective questions that I have asked myself I will ask you here.’
 
Lucy Berry is a performance poet and a United Reformed Church minister. She is a fifth-generation Londoner and part of a mixed-heritage family. Lucy was for four years Poet in Residence for Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show. She has worked in advertising, in HMP Holloway, and as an art therapist.