Sermons from Mind and Heart

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Sermons from Mind and Heart attempts to show the week-by-week theological work that a pastor does. The combining of the intellectual with the emotional is rooted in the categories of logos and pathos from Aristotle's Rhetoric. Some of the sermons have substantive theological reflections with multiple sources and are thus heavily footnoted, other sermons have no footnotes. This doesn't mean that any sermon lacks logos or pathos but that there is an interplay, a back-and-forth, of a pastor struggling to communicate the Gospel in a "this is that" way that honors both the "then" of Scripture and the "now" of contemporary life. Rhetorical scholarship and methodology are important in understanding the content and the structure of the sermons. What matters most is the sense that these sermons are an ongoing theological conversation between the pastor and his congregation. Sermons, after all, are meant to be heard, and they exist in the moment as authentic rhetorical acts. All other versions of the sermon, including this written form, are only echoes of the primal sermonic experience. "The Rodney Kennedy whose sermons I have heard on occasional visits to the First Baptist Church of Dayton is one of today's great preachers. His sermons are challenging: they provoke reexamination of one's own Christian faith and inspire heroic participation in God's work in all spheres of life. His sermons are also unfailingly educational: Kennedy's vast reading and analytical powers give them the power to make listeners think . . . The sermons in this collection, which Kennedy considers the best of the past eight years, should put no one to sleep--or leave any reader's life untouched." -Jacob H. Dorn Wright State University "A compelling voice, with clear congregational accord. Kennedy's intellectual passion and homiletical prowess shine forth here for those seeking in Spirit, humble in heart. Prepare to be startled, as one should be in encounter with the Word preached. Kennedy offers nourishment for both preachers and those who make the 'preaching moment' their own in growing lives of discipleship." -Lisa M. Hess United Theological Seminary "In 2003 the First Baptist Church of Dayton called Rodney Kennedy to be senior pastor . . . it was a masterstroke. A refugee from the fundamentalist-captured Southern Baptist Convention, with a PhD in rhetoric from Louisiana State University, Rod Kennedy fits very well the profile of a First Baptist Church senior pastor. As you will see in the sermons that are to come, he is a fabulous preacher who cannot be--and does not want to be--pegged as liberal or as conservative." -from the Foreword by William Trollinger and Brad Kallenberg Rodney Wallace Kennedy, lead pastor of First Baptist Church, director of the Baptist House of Studies, and teacher of homiletics and Baptist history at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, has a doctorate in rhetoric from Louisiana State University. He has been lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Dayton for eight years. He is the author of The Creative Power of Metaphor and The Encouraging Parent.