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I was delighted to receive this week the autobiography of Fred Craddock, one of the most influential homileticians of the 20th century, Craddock, author of As One Without Authority (1971), inspired a significant new interest in inductive preaching that re-shaped the teaching and practice of preaching.
Craddock was an advocate for the listener. His theory was that listeners should not be robbed of the joy of discovery, usually reserved for the preacher. In fact, the preacher he taught, is a listener as well, with the advantage of a head-start. Craddock taught us that preachers ought to lead the listener through the same process of discovery that he or she was privileged to experience in the study of the text. If the listener works through that kind of process, he or she will personally own the meaning that derives.
Reflections on My Call to Preach is a delightful ode to the life and calling of a preacher. The idea of a “call to preach” sounds almost quaint today, but Craddock gives the concept a new resonance, though he is quick to disavow any sense that his personal story is a template for others. “I certainly hope there is nowhere in these pages any implied claim that an experience of mine, or the sum total of them, constitutes the way one is called of God (2).” Such humility becomes the man, though I suggest that there is much to be instructed by in the example offered by the author.
As a homiletician, I might have liked to have heard more about his mid and later life, his experience as a leading homiletician, and the things he learned along the way. That, however, was beyond the scope of this piece, which is rather, a look at his early life and the way that God worked through others to help him find his calling. It has put me in mind of the need for all of us to become more faithful in calling out those upon whom we recognize the hand of God. The church needs more leaders and a whole lot more people like Fred Craddock who will give themselves wholly to the preaching of the Word. Perhaps we could be among those who God uses to help to raise them up.
“In these pages,” he writes, “I have attempted to be honest about my early life and respectful of those whose lives have touched mine. If this recital prompts a reader to lay aside the book and to lay a new claim on his or her own history, risking an encounter with God in the process, then I will have been amply rewarded. In that hope, I trust you with these words (viii).”
I hope that we will be worthy of that trust.