Taking Up Preaching

“Blayne Banting has been my colleague, friend, and pastor—and this volume wonderfully embodies Banting’s beliefs and practices as a pastor and communicator of God’s word. Taking Up Preaching will resource and inspire both the young leader and the seasoned veteran. Banting beautifully anchors his message in timeless traditional values while also breathing fresh insights relevant to our current cultural moment. Taking Up Preaching should be in every pastor’s library.”


—Michael B. Pawelke, president, Briercrest College and Seminary





“Preaching in our complex world requires wisdom, courage, and tact. Further, it requires preachers to carefully assess themselves, the Scriptures they preach, and the cultural and congregational contexts in which they preach. With Taking Up Preaching, Blayne Banting provides an invaluable guide for preachers who have the courage to proclaim God’s timeless truths, leading them through this assessment process and equipping them for a fruitful life of ministry and preaching.”


—Daniel Overdorf, director of preaching programs, Johnson University





“It’s astonishing amid all-too-regular pastoral scandals that anyone would want to be a preacher. Yet by his Spirit, God is still calling men and women to take up the sacred vocation to preach the word. This book represents a kind of preachers’ manifesto that will both challenge those sensing the call to a preaching ministry and comfort those wondering whether it has even been worth it at all.”


—David Guretzki, president and CEO, The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada





“In the cultural malaise in which we find ourselves, what are we preachers to do? Remember God is good. Remain faithful. And preach—because God still speaks. Captured by the heart of God revealed in Holy Scripture, communicate the heart of God through proclamation. In Taking Up Preaching, Blayne Banting cleverly presents the reader (the called) with the challenge to not only preach information, but be a preacher who seeks formation.”


—Richard Hovey, director, Empey Centre for Spiritual Leadership