Preach Magazine Issue 4 - Preaching in the digital age | Page 31

REVIEWS

Postcards from
the Middle East:

Interrobang:

How our family fell in love with the Arab world

(re) Discovering the communication
secrets of Jesus

Chris Naylor, Lion (2015)

Douglas Witherup, Interrobang Press (2014)

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First and foremost, this is a really great read; a story
that will keep you turning the pages to the end. The
Naylors moved to Kuwait in 1989, and lived in the
Middle East until 2009. Most of us have watched the
turbulent history of this complex part of the world
unfold from a safe distance. This family chose to
put themselves in the eye of the storm, and more
than surviving the experience, they put down roots
and fell in love with the people, the culture, the
climate and the landscape. Interwoven with personal
narrative is a potted history of the region, mostly
focussed on Lebanon where they lived for fourteen
years, and many fascinating insights into their
adopted society.

The question this book explores is one that I have been
interested in for a long time. How can our preaching and
teaching reflect the example Jesus set? Jesus had crowds
that hung on his words, while we have crowds that count the
minutes and celebrate a short sermon. In this book, Douglas
Witherup explores several aspects to Jesus’ teaching that
we should consider including in ours: the use of questions,
storytelling, parables, metaphors, mystery, and the work of
the Holy Spirit. Each of these areas is loaded with insight
that is especially challenging when looking at the common
form of preaching that is found today. We have, to my
knowledge, no example of Jesus giving a sermon of three
sections all neatly framed by propositional statements
all starting with the letter P. Instead Jesus was dynamic,
unpredictable, and engaging.

Layered on this is an explanation of why it is still a
priority to watch birds in a warzone, and how Chris
was able to answer the challenge of Abu Charbel,
one of the elders of his church, who told him, ‘After
your work at the school and time with the family,
any free time should be spent working for the
church, teaching the Bible.’

In some ways this book feels like it could be further
developed. I found myself asking questions that the book did
not address, such as, when does our creativity go too far and
slip into only teaching our ideas instead of those in the Bible?
Or, where might one look for inspiration to have the needed
ideas that this sort of teaching requires?

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants
to get beneath the skin of the Middle East, who wants
to pray for the current crisis but finds it impossible
to understand. Anyone interested in overseas
mission or environmental theology would also find it
helpful and challenging.

JO SWINNEY

Setting aside my concerns, this is a great book for creative
inspiration, or to check how your teaching might need to
branch out in new directions. I found it had a good balance
of content with examples to make it an easy read. I hope for
more books that develop the separate areas that Witherup
talks about. Many books frame preaching as either giving
practical steps towards a goal, or the sermon as developing
a well-argued propositional statement. This book shows that
Jesus’ preaching was often incredibly different from what is
often taught today. May we preach more like Jesus.
SHAWN SWINNEY