South Carolina pastor Bill Curtis has recently completed work on a new book on homiletics entitled “Engaging Exposition.”
Curtis, who is the senior pastor at Cornerstone Church in Florence and an adjunct professor of homiletics at Southeastern Seminary, co-authored the text with Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary, and Stephen Rummage, senior pastor of Bell Shoals Church in Brandon, Fla.
According to Curtis, the genesis for the book originated years ago when he taught preaching at The College at Southeastern. “During those years, I had to design a college preaching class from scratch. There were lots of books about preaching, but none were written with the college student in mind. So I began to think about the design for a college textbook on preaching. ‘Engaging Exposition’ is the result.”
Four years ago, Curtis approached Akin and Rummage and asked them to join him in the project. He could not imagine working on the project with anyone else. “Both Dr. Akin and Dr. Rummage are dear friends of mine, and we share a commitment to expository preaching. Similarly, we all recognized the significance of designing a book that would target college students.” Curtis wrote the section on hermeneutics, Akin wrote the section on sermon development, and Rummage wrote the section on sermon delivery.
From there, it was simply a matter of finding a publisher. “Fortunately,” Curtis said, “Broadman & Holman loved the idea and offered to publish it.” The book arrived in bookstores in May, and schools are already planning to incorporate it into their curriculum beginning this fall. “We think this book makes a unique contribution to the field of homiletics and has the potential to be widely used in Christian universities and seminaries,” Curtis states.
Curtis believes the book has the potential to help pastors and laypeople alike.
“This book isn’t just geared toward college ministerial students,” he said. “Rather, it is a great resource for all Christians who want to improve their abilities to interpret Scripture or create and teach Bible lessons. It is my prayer,” he continued, “that God will use this text to help South Carolina Baptists grow in their understanding of the Bible.”
“Engaging Exposition” is available currently in LifeWay stores, online bookstores, and through Nook and Kindle.