Book Critique: Chapell Assignment
Paolino Curto
HOMI 635: Preaching For Special Occasions (B01)
September 28, 2025
Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................1
Structural Overview and Content Summary..............................................................................1
Analysis..........................................................................................................................................2
Strengths..............................................................................................................................2
Weaknesses..........................................................................................................................3
Summary of Value.........................................................................................................................4
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................5
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Introduction
Every pastor will face the sobering reality of navigating tragedy. Tragedy often strikes
congregations and people without warning. Whether it be the unexpected death of a senior elder
or child, the local community tragedy, or national tragedies like September 11th, and of note
recently, religious and political assassinations. In The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to
Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers for Tragic Times, Bryan Chapell acknowledges this
universal pastoral challenge, drawing on his own ministry experience as well as the insights of
trusted preachers such as Tim Keller, John Piper, and Michael Horton. This book explores the
diversity of tragic situations while maintaining a biblically driven theological framework
centered on God’s sovereignty and the gospel message. While the scope of the book may be
limited to a more exclusively Reformed perspective, it provides essential help for pastors who
must bring God’s hope to people facing their darkest moments.
Structural Overview and Content Summary
Chapell structures this book with a clear framework that incorporates essential theology
to specific pastoral situations and sermons. The introduction sets this tone and theme, laying out
Reformed beliefs about the sovereignty of God and how the message of the cross helps one
understand suffering.
The book covers twenty-five distinct tragedies under five main areas to which a pastor
may be called to preach. Part One addresses broad tragedies such as abortion, child abuse, and
national disasters. Part Two navigates through the challenges of preaching on the loss of a child,
whether that be through miscarriage, early death, or even the specific death of conjoined twins.
Part Three systematically covers preaching through funerals with difficult causes. Part Four goes
beyond typical church settings to address funerals for public figures, while Part Five tackles the
2
challenging task of preaching after a suicide across five types of people (pastors, Christian
leaders, friends, teens, and suicide following pastoral scandal).
Each chapter follows a practical and helpful structure outlining a “Situation,”
“Concerns,” and “Approach.” This format proves effective because it allows readers to
understand both what the situation is and why the given preacher chose to handle it in the way
they did. The contributions from well-known pastors like Tim Keller and John Piper, while
sharing Chapell's Reformed theology, bring in different pastoral experiences that provide a
wealth of approaches.
Analysis
The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach displays significant strengths as well
as a few limitations within crisis preaching. The collection demonstrates practical and effective
pastoral wisdom in understanding that tragedy puts ministers in the difficult position of both
comforting people and defending the faith; however, it also presents a potential weakness in
incorporating a single theological approach. This balance between practical insight and narrow
focus creates both the book’s greatest strengths and its primary weaknesses.
Strengths
In the section of the book navigating community tragedy, Chappel highlights the late
Tim Keller’s approach to preaching through the horror of 9/11 stating that all attending church
that week knew that the pastor would need to not only “give comfort and perspective to his
congregation but also had to provide a defense of God and the gospel to the many visitors who
came seeking explanation and hope. On one level, the church and its message were being sought
for comfort, but on another level the church was also on trial.”1 This serves as an adequate
1 Bryan Chapell, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers for
Tragic Times (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 58.
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strength of the book as one can see the necessity and great challenge of balancing comfort amid a
tragedy, but also hope and an adequate defense of the Christian faith and Church as a response to
tragedy. It appears that many are quick to dismiss God or the Church altogether when tragedy
strikes, but the preacher’s job is to bring to light the truth, which ultimately provides hope.
Chapell advocates for this and utilizes an effective sermon to display it.
Another significant strength lay in Chapell’s approach to the funeral of the woman named
Betty, who had specific requests for gospel proclamation. Chapell makes the important
distinction that he still had an obligatory nature to comfort and console those who were
mourning her loss, but creatively showcases how “In essence, her pain became the lens through
which to discuss the hope of the gospel—the provision of God to deliver us from all pain, both
physical and spiritual. In this way, Betty’s evangelistic goals were met as I sought to help her
family faithfully process the difficulties of her illness as well.”2
Weaknesses
The primary weakness of this book lies in an area that Chapell notes. He mentions that
“Each of the pastors in this volume has a Reformed theological perspective, believing in the
sovereign control of God over all things.”3 While understanding God is sovereign over all things,
this scope of each pastor falling under a reformed theological perspective serves as a limitation to
seeing how other season pastors may address given tragedies or crisis preaching situations.
Another potential weakness exists in Chapell’s address of Wilson's sermon “Thinking
Biblically About the Tragedy of Suicide.” While Chapell advocates well for the approach of the
sermon given the situation, it does appear that even with a distanced suicide situation, it could
2 Bryan Chapell, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers for
Tragic Times, 176.
3 Ibid., 12.
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still appear that the sermon is insensitive. Chapell states that Wilson “offers a message to help a
congregation think biblically about such crises rather than to comfort persons in the midst of
grief. The goal is more preparatory than healing.”4 While this is an essential approach, it again
feels as though some comfort and consoling should be evident, given that those in attendance
may have a similar situation they have navigated with their own family or friends.
Summary of Value
The setup of the book reveals Chapell’s conviction that effective crisis preaching must
stem from genuine pastoral experience, not just theory. By covering a vast number of pastoral
crises, Chapell prepares ministers for the full range of tragedy they will face in ministry. This
positions this book beyond just a collection of sermons and establishes it as a trustworthy
pastoral handbook.
.
Bibliography
Chapell, Bryan. The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers
for Tragic Times. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011.
4 Bryan Chapell, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers for
Tragic Times, 242.
