Be My Witness: The Great Commission for Preachers by Marvin A. McMickle
(Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2016). 192 pages. $17.99

Veteran author, pastor, and now divinity school president Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle has over the years traversed the occasionally treacherous landscape of the church through his writings with a deft eye towards building and strengthening the body of Christ on earth. His latest offering pushes the envelope even further as he fastens his gaze on the task of preaching with his new book under the title of Be My Witness: The Great Commission for Preachers. This is not a new topic for McMickle as he has often ventured down this avenue in his writings in the hopes of reviving the essential nature and the act of preaching. This latest book is required reading for today’s preachers and ministers in the church who oftentimes find themselves boxed in with nowhere to turn when discerning what to preach from Sunday to Sunday. He offers prescriptive approaches to flinging open the doors of our imagination by realizing that while there may be pressing issues in our churches that must be addressed, there are also local, national, and international issues begging for attention. For the uninitiated McMickle’s approach may be surprising as he aims to push preachers out of their comfort zones to tackle topics, issues, and subjects that may indeed lead to the pastor being asked to leave and earn his bread elsewhere.

A central theme of the book is helping twenty-first century disciples of Christ relate their preaching to public policy helping the church to shape the world rather than the world shaping and draining the church. In Be My Witness, McMickle offers an insightful and scrutinizing exegetical look at Acts 1:6–8: “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In deciphering layer upon layer of meaning with each subsequent chapter of this book, he takes a short, familiar pericope at the beginning of the book of Acts and lays bare for the comfortable some decidedly inconvenient truths. In a couplet of threes, he provides bite-size portions of understanding palatable for, what Gardner C. Taylor called, the “sweet torture of Sunday morning.”

In the cover to cover scope of Be My Witness, McMickle utilizes the most basic couplet of threes found in the simple structure of the text. His exposition examines (1) the question of Jesus’ disciples in verse six, then (2) leaps to Jesus’ great commission at the end of verse eight (b), and finally (3) steps back and closes the textual exploration with “the role and power of the Holy Spirit” found in verse eight (a). To close out the book, this presentation of the Holy Spirit — which, as he points out, is sandwiched between the questions of the disciples and the great commission — is purposeful and intentional, stating plainly that “the role and importance of the Holy Spirit in preaching is the theme that [he] hopes the reader will take away from this book.” In each section, he probes subtle nuances in the text that help to arm the preacher with a more than adequate arsenal of sermon material beyond the simple reliance on commentaries and lectionaries. He is careful not to disparage in any way the use of extra-biblical resources in sermon development, but he offers these three levels of Jesus’ great commission to the disciples as a continual source of not only fresh but relevant preaching.

McMickle places an explication of what it means to be a “witness” at the foundation of the book. He juxtaposes mechanisms of filling seats that unfortunately pass as “preaching” against witnessing for Jesus even when suffering is the definitive outcome. He devotes the first half of the book to the meticulous exploration and indoctrination of witnessing. Hence, the second couplet of threes upon which he builds the book and his case: (1) seeing something, (2) saying something, and (3) suffering something. Using these three tent poles of witnessing, he spends time demonstrating for preachers the infinite levels of substantive sermon material lying in wait for preachers longing for a relevant ministry that lives up to the great commission and the great challenge to speak with what Cornell West referred to as “parrhesia, speaking truth boldly and freely without regard for the speaker’s safety or security.”

Be My Witness is replete with rich illustrations making plain what might otherwise prove enigmatic, and it draws upon some of the richest theological preaching minds of the twentieth century. In essence, McMickle offers a clarion call to preachers to approach the prophetic witness and mandate of Jesus with a renewed vigor and determination to live up to and to live out Jesus’ great commission which remains unchanged for his disciples from the first century, down through the millennia, and those who take up the preaching and witnessing mantel in the twenty-first century.

Summarizing the work, McMickle implores preachers to remember the setting for Jesus’ great commission. McMickle acknowledges the role and importance of the Holy Spirit, admonishing all who take up the prophetic task of preaching that, just as was the case with the disciples after Jesus’ ascension back to heaven, “nothing was to be said and nothing was to be done until after the power of the power of the Holy Spirit had been imparted to them.”

Clearly and concisely written, this book wastes little space with superfluous thoughts or ideas. For all who have affirmatively answered the call to preach, Be My Witness is highly recommended as a resource that will be sought time and time again.

About the author

Daryl Bloodsaw wrote 2 articles for this publication.

Rev. Daryl G. Bloodsaw is the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, NY. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a BS in Political Science, a Master of Divinity from New York Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. After working for 20 years in corporate America in marketing and advertising he left to concentrate fully on ministry. He resides in New Jersey with his wife and children.

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