Sunukjian, Donald R. Invitation to Philippians: Building a Great Church through Humility

Donald Sunukjian is well known to a generation of seminary students for his influential homiletics textbook, Invitation to Biblical Preaching (Kregel Academic&Professional, 2007). The present volume is part of a series intended to complement that book by providing concrete models for the principles presented therein. Let me say straight away that I have not read Invitation to Biblical Preaching , so am not qualified to judge Sunukjian’s success (or otherwise) in achieving this stated aim. Nevertheless, I found there was much to appreciate in this volume.

Invitation to Philippians is constructed as a series of sermon transcripts, lightly edited for presentation in written rather than oral form. This means that much of the original freshness of presentation is retained, and this is helpful for a young preacher trying to get the flavour of Sunukjian’s preaching style. The alert reader will pick up tips on how much and what repetition is required, both within one message and from one week to the next. However, this can also become somewhat tedious, particularly if (as in my case) the book is read within a short space of time. I also found some of his material was heavily contextualised this his (American) context – perfectly reasonable, given that was the context in which he was preaching, but occasionally difficult for a non-American to appreciate.

Sunukjian’s treatment of the text is sensible and solid. Obviously this is a series of sermons, rather than an exhaustive commentary, so his goal is to expound and apply the text. His intention is to model some of the ways a book like Philippians might be preached. In this light, he offers good insights on portions of the text, and some thoughtful challenges, presented with clarity. For me, one of the most valuable parts was seeing how he connected themes from one week to the next, building on the previous message and preparing for the next, though never at the expense of the current text.

Like many Christians, I suppose, Philippians holds a special place in my heart – much as the Philippians themselves did in Paul’s. Thus it is a joy to see this new volume appear expounding this wonderful text. Yet, in the end, I did not feel that the models of preaching presented herein were so compelling that I need to find out more about the method and principles that underpin them.