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Acknowledgments The idea of a single author is a convenient myth. Yes, one person often sets pen to paper—or more likely punches on the keys of a laptop—yet there is so much more that goes into bringing the thoughts and ideas of any project to publication. This book is no exception. It was, as I mention in the introduction, in many ways written backwards. Only after I’d written a number of the parts or pieces that eventually furnished the content of this book did I have a chance to look back over the last decade of my work and realize that I had been following—or perhaps, more accurately, bumbling along—a path that had led quite a way from my early training as a preacher. The book now in your hands is the result of taking these various parts and pieces and fashioning them into a coherent whole that I hope not only traces my journey into a very different cultural landscape than the one I had been trained to navigate but also helps other preachers make the same trek. While each chapter was reshaped, rewritten, and in one case written entirely new, I want to mention briefly and thank the persons who listened to or read early versions of these chapters and offered helpful feedback and encouragement along the way. The first two chapters on postmodernism stem from my dissertation work at Princeton Theological Seminary between 1996 and 2000 under the direction of James Kay, and I remain grateful for his guidance on that project and his continued friendship. I delivered an early, pre-dissertation version of the first chapter at the 1998 annual meeting of the Academy of Homiletics and then a post-dissertation version at the 2005 Festival of Homiletics and soon after at a conference on preaching and worship sponsored by the Diocese of Gothenburg of the Church of Sweden. The second chapter was first delivered at the annual meeting of The Christian Theological Research Fellowship in 1999. At each of those events I enjoyed a number of conversations that helped me think more clearly and practically about the challenges and opportunities of postmodernism. The third chapter began as a reflection on what it means to confess Christ in a secular world that I offered at the Worship Jubilee conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2007. I turned my attention toward the implications of that work for preaching in response to invitations to preach at Luther Seminary in 2008 and to present at the 2012 Festival of ix Homiletics. The fourth chapter has not appeared in any form and stemmed from my work on a grant related to Christian vocation generously funded by the Lilly Endowment. That project, named The Christians Callings in the World, continues to shape, challenge, and energize my work and research. The fifth and sixth chapters also have their roots in work supported by the Lilly Endowment both in the CCW grant in the Vibrant Congregations Project. Chapter 5 had its origins in conversations about our present-day culture with colleagues at Luther Seminary and was then given form for the first Rethinking Stewardship conference sponsored by Luther Seminary in 2009, an address that was eventually published as a chapter in a Word and World Supplemental Issue by the same name. The heart of the sixth chapter arose from conversations with colleagues and congregation members participating in our grant-related work on congregational vibrancy. An earlier version was also published in Word and World, appearing in the 2010 issue on “E-dentity.” I am grateful to the journal and its editor, Fred Gaiser, for permission first to present it at the annual meeting of the Academy of Homiletics that same year and now to publish it here. As I review the history of these chapters, two sets of folks stand out. The first are the good people who have shepherded the Festival of Homiletics into the premiere preaching conference in the country. David Howell, its founder and visionary leader, and Sally Peters, the Director of Lifelong Learning at Luther Seminary who now, with David, oversees and continues to develop it, have been incredibly gracious colleagues, and I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to try out some of my crazier ideas at the Festival. The second are the stewards of the Lilly Endowment and, in particular, its Religion Division. The research I’ve been privileged to direct has absolutely transformed my thinking about...

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