Developing And Preaching The Sermon - Dr. Gennifer Brooks

31-501 – Developing and Preaching the Sermon – Dr. Gennifer Brooks Carmanie Bhatti Old Testament – Puritan Plain The preaching context is a sub-urban congregation that comprises of 250-300 regular members. It is a Reconciling Congregation that voted in February 2014 to be part of the Reconciling Ministries Network. The mission statement of the church is â€Å"First Church is a vibrant, accepting congregation that welcomes all who seek God, inclusive of age, race, education, economic status, sexual orientation. â€Å"The church believes in open doors, open hearts ministry and is very active in social justice ministry. The church hires professional singers as the Chancel Choir members and has recently hired a Music Director. The church offers†¦show more content†¦Not only did I have a great experience, I also was thankful for being cared for, and shown love and respect midst the persons that do not belong to the same Garrett- Evangelical community as myself or are not from the same ethnic and geographic background as me. I was reminded of God’s love, commitment and promise that we have read about today in Genesis 12:1-4. Body Exegesis Abram was a man of seventy five years when we received his call. The readers are introduced to the call of Abram who at that time was called by this name. The text comes after the story of creation in Genesis, and before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra. The book of Genesis is said to belong to â€Å"many different traditions,† and therefore, is said to be a narrative. This book is a collection of oral and written records. Genesis 3 records mankind’s disobedience to God which was eating the forbidden fruit. Genesis 4 mentions about Cain killing his brother Abel, another act of disobedience that he should not have chosen to be a part of. Later in Genesis 5, we read about humankind’s sins and the story of the flood that took place in Noah’s time. Further, Genesis mentions humankind’s another big act, the incident of the Tower of Babel. All these were the â€Å"bad incidents† and it is in Genesis 12:1-4 that we get to see what God initiating a call is about. One commentary states concerning a call â€Å"wherever the call was issued, its substance was the same: he was to