A rich and passionate compilation of sermons and essays from religious leaders across the Christian landscape, all reflecting on the 2008 historic election of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States of America. Features dynamic preachers Tony Campolo, Carolyn Ann Knight, and Gardner C. Taylor; respected scholars Dwight Hopkins, Anthony Pinn, and Emilie Townes; respected pastors Brad Braxton, Otis Moss II, and Gina Stewart; and popular authors Marvin McMickle, Leonard Sweet, William Willimon, and Philip Yancey....

It's been said that those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it. It is that conviction that makes this youthful Christian history of black America a vital resource for educators, parents, and students alike. From the first African slaves to the first black professional athletes, from the revival at Azusa Street to the civil rights movement, from the who's who of historically black denominational leaders to the who's who of popular African American culture, this chronological survey highlights with rich illustrations, famous quotes, and "Phat Facts" the names and events that forged African American experience in the twenty-first century....

Shaping the Claim takes readers beyond the initial steps of theological analysis, contextual explorations, and biblical exegesis to help the preacher discover the core of the message to be preached - the sermonic "claim."
In order to be effective, says McMickle, a sermon needs to address the hearers at three distinct levels; the head or the intellect, the heart or passion and conviction, and the hand or an expected and desired response. The sermonic claim is the way in which the sermon engages the listener at all three levels. In order to discover the biblical"claim" that a sermon should make upon a particular congregation at a particular time, McMickle presents a helpful three-step process: (1) What? (2) So What? and (3) Now What?
The book is keyed to online sermon samples and other Web-based features such as sermon illustrations and art at elementsofpreaching.com....