Looking for just the right gift for a preacher? Consider Warren Lathem and Dan Dunn’s 2008 book, Preaching for a Response: Leading New Believers into Spiritual Maturity, published by Bristol House. 
The authors (Lathem has served as a pastor, district superintendent, and seminary president; Dunn has been a pastor, associate pastor, and missionary) know how to declare biblical truths in ways that elicit a clear response from listeners — a skill neither learned in seminary.
From the book:
These authors have a collective 17 years of formal theological education.
Yet never in those years did anyone attempt to instruct either of us in how to preach for a response, how to give the invitation for a response, or even why we ought to find a way to invite and encourage a response….
[But r]esponse is inherent in the gospel and the gospel preacher who does night invite response is not being completely faithful to the gospel.
Other excerpts:
How many sermons are preached, how many worship services are conducted in church all across America without any thought being given to a response by the hearer? How often do preachers and worship leaders prepare a great banquet, set it before the people, entice them to this gospel feast with beautiful words and music, yet never say, “Come and get it”?…
We may delude ourselves into thinking that just because the listener recognizes the need to respond, that he or she will know how to make a proper response to the gospel.
More likely, without direction, guidance and invitation from the preacher, most will simply make no overt, conscious, intentional response, and by failing to do so will in fact reject the message they just heard….
Why do most mainline preachers fail to issue an invitation or give an opportunity for response? There are several possible reasons….
- We do not really believe people are lost…
- We do not believe the power of the gospel…
- We do not know how to invite a response…
- We would not know what do if they did respond…
- Our order of worship does not accommodate a response…
- We are fearful of the opinion of others…
- We do not take preaching seriously enough….
Preaching for a Response includes advice about “what to say” and “how to say it.” The chapter “Twelve Keys to Effective Preaching” emphasizes the basic building blocks of effective speaking — such as maintaining strong eye contact, using varied pacing, employing short sentences, and ending strong.
Warren Lathem
Dan Dunn
The book also includes detailed suggestions on how to plan worship services, week after week, aimed at eliciting responses that move people toward maturity in Christ.
You can order Preaching for a Response here (Amazon) or here (Bristol House).
