The Poetics of Preaching: The Phenomenon and Importance of Crafting Sermons

Dr. James Earl Massey (1939–2018) was a committed Wesleyan-Holiness preacher in the Church of God movement (Anderson) and possessed the rare combination of being both a tenured pastor and a biblical scholar. He was influential in the Civil Rights movement and a friend and confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Massey served as the founding and long-serving senior pastor of the Metropolitan Church of God in Detriot, Michigan, and in a variety of roles at Anderson College (now University), Tuskegee University, and the Beeson Divinity School at Samford University. Dr. Massey was widely recognized for his preaching skills and was the author of eighteen books. The Poetics of Preaching is an unpublished manuscript written by Dr. Massey in 2010.