Humor Us!: Preaching and the Power of the Comic Spirit
Homiletics textbooks often discourage the use of humor in preaching, regarding it as trivializing or distracting. The result is that many preachers have failed to understand humor's positive power, demoting it to the opening joke to get a guaranteed guffaw to warm up the crowd. Humor Us!, the second volume in the "Preaching and..." series, is a collaborative effort by homiletician Alyce M. McKenzie and humor scholar Owen Hanley Lynch that promotes humor, a force capable of great good, to its rightful place in the pulpit. Establishing humor as a divine gift, Humor Us! opens to preachers the world of humor studies with its positive portrayal of humor's usefulness to speak truth to power, unite people in their common humanity, and strengthen them to cope and survive in tough times.
Humor Us! helps preachers understand how humor works and shows them, in very practical and specific ways, how preachers can put it to work in their sermons. It combines the wealth of knowledge of two highly regarded scholars-practitioners to show how humor can become a potent tool for sharing the good news in sermons. McKenzie and Lynch prove that humor, when applied thoughtfully, can foster compassion and a sense of common humanity, help challenge an unjust status quo, and invite listeners into a shared experience of the presence of God.
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Alyce McKenzie is Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship and Director of the Center for Preaching Excellence at Perkins School of Theology. A sought-after preacher and workshop leader, she is the author of several books for both preachers and lay audiences, including Novel Preaching: Tips from Top Writers on Crafting Creative Sermons and Making a Scene in the Pulpit: Vivid Preaching for Visual Listeners.
Owen Hanley Lynch is an Associate Professor in Corporate Communication and Public Affairs in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. An accomplished and popular professor, he is the author of numerous scholarly articles and is also CoFounder and Executive Director of Restorative Farms, a nonprofit farm system to address lack of healthy food access and economic opportunities in South Dallas.
"To anyone who does even occasional public speaking, it's obvious that humor gets attention, relaxes your audience, creates rapport, and makes your message memorable. But few books on preaching have delved into these and other benefits of humor. McKenzie and Lynch make up for lost time with this tour de force of historical research, funny stories, and advice for preachers. Their tips and questions 'To Ponder' alone are worth the price of this book. I was especially taken with their exploration of Christianity as a comic vision of life--as 'the certainty of the ultimate victory of . . . hope over despair'--with its links between humor and faith, hope, and love." - John Morreall, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, College of William & Mary
"How refreshing and exciting to see a book that directly and principally addresses the Christian religion and humor, indeed even taking a practical stance on how pastors can use humor in their communication. This book, through meticulous and extensive research, forthrightly seeks to bring together expertise in homiletics and communication to explore the topic of humor in preaching. Exploring humor as a gift from God, the authors admirably show from a variety of different approaches why humor is crucial to the human experience and highly desirable and useful for preachers' communication. In friendly, accessible, and at times funny text, the book explores humor and theology based on the essential humor in divine and human character, humor and homiletics and the work that humor can do in sermons, and humor in preachers' lives that can be harnessed and used in their work and relationships. Preachers will find this work of great practical value, but anyone interested in the clashes and reinforcements of humor and the Christian religion through the centuries leading up to now will find it a fun and fascinating read. Not only did I learn about humor and its uses in Christian lives and giving sermons, I learned a lot also about preaching from reading this book, along with lots of practical advice about noting and using humor in presentations advancing the Christian church." - John Meyer, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Southern Mississippi
"Thank you, baby Jesus! Finally, a book that truly understands the electric power of humor in preaching. As a pastor and a professional comedian, I know firsthand how the savvy homiletical leveraging of humor can utterly transform the dynamics of a room (and a sanctuary). We owe it to ourselves as preachers, teachers, and human beings to read this wonderful book, absorb its wisdom, then use it to launch the good news of hope as high as it can fly." - Rev. Susan Sparks, preacher, comedian, author
"As this book reminds us, Aristotle called human beings 'laughing animals.' People enjoy a good joke and creative use of humor. That explains the popularity of stand-up comedians and comedy clubs. This book invites preachers to tap into that appreciation for humor and learn about the benefits and risks of using humor in preaching. Through a compelling review of the history of comedy and humor as an academic study, this book draws preachers and homileticians into the various ways in which humor can appropriately be used in sermons. That includes blending biblical hermeneutics with a new word I have learned here: 'humor-neutics, ' which invites preachers to notice and make use of the humor and irony that runs throughout the biblical narrative, and link that with their observations about the world around them. This is not a joke; this book will make for better sermons and better preachers." - Marvin A. McMickle, President (retired), Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School
"What a wonderful gift Alyce McKenzie and Owen Lynch have given us. In this enjoyable, engaging, and revealing book, McKenzie and Lynch show us that the God who is revealed in Scripture has a wonderful sense of humor and wants us to have one as well. In a time when there is much sadness and widespread lament in the church and our world, this daring, thoroughly enjoyable book invites us to smile, to see ourselves as a gracious God sees us, to laugh and to relish the gift of laughter." - Will Willimon, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School; United Methodist Bishop (retired)
"Preachers instinctively know that humor in the sermon can serve the gospel. Preachers also know that when humor appears inappropriately in the sermon, everyone in the room is uneasy. This superb volume--the first study of humor in the pulpit in a generation--offers a theology of humor, perspectives on how humor works, points to sources for humor, marks occasions that are appropriate and inappropriate for humor, and, best of all, offers practical guidelines for using humor in the pulpit. This book will not turn preachers into stand-up comics, but it will help preachers see and express the humor that is all around us and that can bring a special spark to the sermon." - Ronald J. Allen, Professor Emeritus of Preaching and Gospels and Letters, Christian Theological Seminary
"Sermons would be a lot more listenable, delightful, and effective if preachers followed the advice of this witty, theoretically solid, and eminently practical book. Alyce McKenzie and Owen Lynch give readers many fine gifts in these pages, but none is more profound or welcome than their invitation to a more joyful expression of the faith." - Thomas G. Long, Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching, Candler School of Theology
"I smiled, nodded, laughed out loud, and underlined a lot as I read McKenzie and Lynch's wise and piquant Humor Us!, rethinking how humor works or doesn't in preaching and as the core of the life of faith. G. K. Chesterton said, 'Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.' Preachers will soar when they take this book seriously." - James Howell, Senior Pastor, Myers Park United Methodist Church
