Some of the Words Are Theirs
The Art of Writing and Living a Sermon
- Preaching & Worship
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
A wise and lyrical encounter with the distinctive work of a pastor, Some of the Words Are Theirs reveals the beating heart of a life measured not just in years lived, but in sermons preached. Given the stiff competition in today’s attention economy, many pastors feel pressured to make their sermons strikingly original. But Austin Carty, a longtime pastor and award-winning writer, has a different perspective: nothing we do or say is ever truly new. The power of a sermon is found not in novelty, but in the mandate it gives preachers to collect their thoughts every week and put them down in a succinct, coherent fashion. Seen this way, sermon writing is a built-in answer to the distinctly human quandary of making meaning from the stuff of our lives. As Carty puts it, “This is the unique gift of preaching. While all writers are blessed by self-discovery, preachers are the most blessed writers of all—for we have a deadline for self-discovery each Sunday.” In Some of the Words Are Theirs: The Art of Writing and Living a Sermon, Carty offers a masterclass in sermon writing that also explores the “why” driving this vocation. In so doing, he discovers how often his own sermons have been an exercise in trying to make sense of his own past, and how much autobiography lies beneath the themes he has been preaching throughout his pastoral career. Ultimately, Carty shows how careful attention to the craft of writing a sermon—like careful attention to living a meaningful life—leads to greater self-awareness and humility. The Holy Spirit can use a preacher’s words and life in ways he or she never could have anticipated. A beautifully woven tapestry of homiletical instruction and memoir, Some of the Words Are Theirs will appeal to readers of Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and to seminarians and pastors who yearn for a more holistic understanding of the craft of sermon writing. Foreword Reviews INDIES Adult Nonfiction Religion Finalist (2025)
Endorsements (8)
“For preachers to be sure, but also for anybody who loves and wants good preaching, Carty’s book is a sheer gift. It’s deeply revealing, spiritually discerning, and wonderfully instructive. Buy it!”
“With Some of the Words Are Theirs: The Art of Writing and Living a Sermon, Austin Carty joins the ranks of Annie Dillard, Anne Lamott, Stephen King, and Flannery O’Connor—a small society of writers who know how to wrench truth, goodness, and beauty from the depths of ordinary life. This is a stunning little manual that will inspire you not only to write better, but to live more deeply, too. It took my breath away.”
“Austin Carty has written an amazing book—eminently readable, fascinating, homiletically helpful, emotionally powerful, sometimes sad and draining. One could hardly find a more honest presentation about the extent to which our sermons emerge from the tragic, grace-filled fabric of the preacher’s own life. Read this book and savor it.”
“In a world with no shortage of books on preaching, Austin Carty offers readers an astoundingly fresh and vulnerable exploration of the art of preaching. Preachers of all stripes—aspiring or experienced—will be greatly helped and inspired by Carty’s reflections. Some of the Words Are Theirs is the rare book that delights as it instructs, teaching readers how to write a sermon rooted in God’s grace, but also how to faithfully live a life shaped by the grace we proclaim. This is among the most compelling and moving books on preaching I’ve encountered.”
“When preaching feels like a solitary effort, Austin Carty reminds us that proclamation is as communal and relational and emotional as any pastoral act. In a book that moves fluidly between memoir and how-to guide, Carty teaches us anew that the most faithful preaching is rooted in knowing the people and places that made us who we are, especially the God whose grace has carried us through every turn.”
“Our lives are interpretations of what we have read and experienced. In Some of the Words Are Theirs, Austin Carty explores this mystery in the context of his own pastoral vocation. More than an insightful book about how to write a sermon, Carty’s own words demonstrate how to give your talents back to the One who authors you.”
“The Christian tradition asks pastors who preach to take on, to some degree, the disposition of a poet. The pastor must engage words with skill and be stirred by their mysterious power to touch hearts and beckon souls. But the pastor must also accept an even more mystical task: saying something true about God and life while simultaneously recognizing that the living God may choose to speak another word entirely, and not only being open to this possibility but even hoping it happens. The backdrop to all this, as Austin Carty skillfully shows, is not only the craft of writing and preaching sermons, but also the formation of the preacher by the hand of God. Some of the Words Are Theirs is an honest, beautiful, practical, and deeply moving book. Every pastor must read it. And everyone who loves the work of pastors will love this book. It is simply superb.”
“Austin Carty is a new prophet for preachers. Not much of what a prophet says is new. Prophets build on other prophets, but as Willa Cather has said, the artist ‘must learn to distinguish what is his own from that which he admires.’ Behind Austin Carty I hear some Thomas Long and some Fred Craddock, but even more I hear the distinctive voice of a narrative preacher. The genius of Some of the Words Are Theirs will sneak up on the reader and the wannabe narrative preacher as they gradually recognize how the book performs what it teaches. Carty proposes constructing sermons with four panels. His four panels (opening images, exegesis, story, and theology) intermingle throughout the book as we are learning about the basics of preaching. Destined to be a textbook for homiletics.”
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