Dee Pederson

Storycraft

Preaching & Worship

“A Tribute to Walter Wangerin Jr. Walter Wangerin Jr. died on August 5, 2021, while this book was in its final stages of editing and production. You can learn more about this remarkable pastor, author, and teacher at walterwangerinjr.org and discover his numerous books. The following excerpts were written by his friend, best-selling author Philip Yancey, in “My Benediction to the Beloved Storyteller, Walter Wangerin Jr.” (Christianity Today, August 9, 2021). These comments are provided with Philip’s gracious permission. “As both a sermonizer and an artist, with graduate degrees in theology and English, Walt lived with the constant tension of how best to express themes of grace and the cross. As a pastor, he found that story conveys truth most effectively and profoundly. As he told one interviewer, ‘While the intellect must be addressed in communicating Christian truth, it will not be truth for the hearer until the hearer is also touched deep within himself or herself.’ “Walt knew he was swimming against the tide. He spoke of the ‘cool pragmatism’ of modern literary taste. He sought instead to draw the reader into another world, a suspension of disbelief carried more by music and lyricism than by sense and reason. He once told me in a letter that ‘a writer hopes for the obedience of a good reader who says, “I will enter this world a while, however different it is from my own more familiar expressions of truth.”’ “Rest content, dear Walter. You have given us a well-crafted life. Because you paid attention, so can we.” Praise for Storycraft “Preachers want hearers to experience the good news the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer described it: as Christ walking among the congregation as the Word today. In this book, Walt Wangerin Jr. teaches us to draw upon the stories of Scripture, the breadth of literature, and the stories of ministry, and then consider the important fine details of how we embody our preaching. He graciously invites us into his life, ministry, and legacy to show us why we experience great stories and great preaching as gospel events that transform lives.”

What a Fellowship

History & Biography

“Gracia Grindal tells the story of the church she knew as home and continues to love. This detailed history sings like one of her hymns and creates images like her poetry. Some of these stories are held in her heart by lived memory. Many are drawn from interviews and church archives. Others bring back the voices of pastors and professors whom many today still hold dear. What a Fellowship helps the reader better understand the theology, ecclesiology, and culture of the congregations, communities, and educational institutions of the Lutheran church today. It is a story of faith in God's mercy and abiding presence in the church that can be, at the same time, both heartbreaking and home.”