Reader Recommendation: Engaging the Gadfly: Reflective Online, Hybrid, and In-Person Preaching in a Digital Age, by Casey T. Sigmon
Recommended by: The Proclamation Project
Why it might be helpful: Dr. Sigmon reminds us that preaching — and the church in general — has been through several significant shifts over the centuries. She then guides us gently toward “a new media homilecclesiology” in which we can explore both the problems and the possibilities of preaching in the digital age.

Engaging the Gadfly is a theological and practical guide to preaching in a media landscape that no longer maps onto the single-context assumptions of traditional homiletics. Dr. Casey T. Sigmon draws on homiletical theory, media studies, and pastoral experience to help preachers think through what it means to proclaim the word in digital, hybrid, and in-person contexts — not as competing modes but as a complex, integrated reality that demands new reflection. The “gadfly” of the title is the preacher’s vocation itself: to provoke, question, and animate congregations in whatever form the gathering takes.

For Disciples preachers navigating the aftermath of the pandemic’s forced experiment with digital worship, this book provides both the conceptual framework and the practical guidance to make intentional choices about how preaching works across contexts. It is a resource for those who want to not just survive the digital age, but preach faithfully within it.

Check it out

You might also find helpful:

• Preaching in the Age of Chatbots — A Disciples keynote on artificial intelligence, digital culture, and the future of the pulpit.
• Preaching and Neurodivergence — A webinar on preaching with an understanding that people have different ways of being in the world.
• Church Anew — A blog connecting word and world for preachers navigating the challenges facing the church today.

Reader Recommendations are submitted by Disciples preachers and are not created or fully reviewed by the Proclamation Project.