A preacher wrote to us recently that he took a class on stand-up comedy to sharpen his delivery of stories. He points to a need: listeners are changing, and preachers must reinvent themselves to communicate effectively.

John Bisagno reinvented his preaching three times during his ministry at Houston's First Baptist Church. An evangelist when he was called there in 1970, Bisagno made the transition to doctrinal sermons. Later he began exegeting longer passages as his congregation developed a taste for expository preaching. About five years ago, Bisagno detected another shift in his listeners, and, at age 60, adopted "principle preaching."

Warren Wiersbe reinvented his preaching in the later years of his ministry at the Moody Memorial Church. "Be competent" would be the advice of the respected expositor. His new book, The Dynamics of Preaching (Baker, 1999), includes an annotated bibliography to help us understand how listeners, and thus preachers, are changing. Here are some of his picks.