Prayer has often been described simply as communicating with God. How many of us talk to God daily? If we did not speak to our spouse daily, how much would we know about her/him? Dr William Powell Tuck brings not only years of studying the Scripture but perhaps more importantly his own prayer experience and his time as a pastor, counseling and teaching others. "I have often been embarrassed to admit that praying has not come so easily or naturally to me," he confesses in this book. This frank and open attitude gives us all a renewed hope, makes us eager to see what Dr Tuck has to say about prayer, and try his suggestions.

"Writer's block is a common complaint from many authors. They reach a point sometimes when they simply cannot produce anything worth reading. Preachers often encounter this same kind of roadblock when they attempt to prepare sermons."- William Powell Tuck With this opening sentence, Dr Tuck brings his many years of experience as professor and pastor and freely gives some "nuts and bolts" of sermon preparation and "pots and pans" essential for effective preaching. This book is not about the philosophy or theology of preaching but about preparing for, writing, and preaching a sermon. While the reader may quickly find a solution to this week's sermon, Dr. Tuck also gives ideas and plans for long-term preparation to open a new pathway, moving sermons from a burden to a blessing for the writer as well as the intended listener.

The Cross. The central symbol of the Christian faith. "Can a church be an authentic Church and not focus on the cross?" William Powell Tuck began answering that question in his book, The Church Under the Cross, and now he leads us into the second part of his answer in his new book, The Last Words from the Cross. "The words of our Lord on the cross have become very memorable. These words of Jesus have been designated as the seven last words. They are, of course, more than individual words. They are really sentences or fragments of sentences. One of these seven words is found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Three of them are found in the Gospel of Luke, and three are recorded in John. No one gospel contains all of them. But, to me, that is a way of authenticating the gospels. Each writer drew on what he remembered or considered most important in those moments or what he had heard from others who shared their experiences." says Tuck. A study of these words gives us, His disciples, a deeper insight into Jesus' thoughts through suffering, facing death, and what His death meant to Him as He met our need for salvation. Rev Tuck further says, "These words reveal his personal agony, his concern for others, his forgiving spirit, his physical suffering, his ultimate trust and faithfulness in the One he had proclaimed. Even in his moments of forsakenness he still resisted the temptation to turn away ultimately from God's will or deny the One who led him to this shameful death as he identifies with sinners."

The membership of River Road Church, Baptist, includes a wide spectrum of persons of varying educational attainments, wide economic levels, and all ages from children to seniors. They represent a variety of careers including merchants, trades, professions, community leaders, and educational faculty in the local schools, colleges, graduate schools, and seminaries. No matter the educational level of the membership, the church sought a highly educated clergy. The pastors called to serve River Road Church came with advanced graduate studies and earned doctor's degrees. The five preachers in this volume span almost seven decades. Each stayed a length of time to accomplish the challenges he faced in the building up of the congregation and the enhancement of the spiritual life of the membership. Each preacher brought different gifts of preaching, management styles, craftsmanship, and vision.

The intent of this book is to look seriously at what constitutes the content and background of authentic preaching. This book is offered as one pastor and preaching professor's suggestions on how I have tried to share the gospel through my ministry both in the classroom and in the pulpit. I have been pastor of small and large congregations, rural and downtown urban churches, college and seminary congregations, healthy and troubled parishes. During my busy pastoral ministry with my congregations I have tried to share with them not only my verbal sermons from the pulpit, but also a written copy by the next Sunday. This has often been an exacting but rewarding discipline. It has pushed me for originality, careful craftsmanship, sound biblical exegesis, and the desire for clarity and to offer my best gifts. Being pastor in a college and seminary community has certainly heightened my awareness to offer my best all the time.

The Church has been under attack forcenturies, but probably few times in its history havethe threats against the church's survival been as subtleand compelling as today. Many are seeking to rewritethe Church's agenda and equate it with their secularneeds. Others are espousing a "prosperity gospel" asthe menu for the Church today. Others see the Churchas merely an extension of their social needs and as aprivate club to foster their style of life. Others areinterested only in the Church growing, no matter howit grows. Numbers are the only important thing tothem. Few today realize the radical and revolutionarynature of the Church which our Lord founded and thecall he issued for a dynamic allegiance to him and thelife-changing commitment he demands of any whowould identify with him and his way of discipleship.

The theological term for "the last things" is eschatology. It is the Christian doctrine which is concerned with the final "things," death, the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, the final judgment, heaven and hell. Even though these themes are at the heart of the Christian faith, it is often difficult to voice with clarity what we mean by them. In The Journey to the Undiscovered Country, William Powell Tuck says, "Although there is no clear, simple, New Testament answer on all of these issues, the New Testament is unequivocal in its hope for men and women in Jesus Christ. No one can speak with certainty about such matters as the mystery of death, the resurrection, heaven and hell, the second coming, or the final judgment of God. However, the New Testament does offer some concrete pointers which I believe can be helpful to us. I invite you to join me as we look to see if we can gain some insight to determine the future hope for those who die in Christ."

The cross has always been a scandal and sometimes a source of ridicule. At the same time, it is the central symbol of Christianity. Author William Powell Tuck believes that the cross has never been more relevant than it is today. It may be difficult to preach the cross, but it is the duty of Christians to do so. "As long as the church lifts up a hollow, aluminum foil cross instead of a heavy wooden cross, we will always be guilty of heresy in the message we present to the world," he says. In the pages of this book you will start by looking the cross as the central symbol of the gospel, a symbol that you cannot forget if you want to preach and live an authentic gospel. From there you will look at how the cross illuminates our understanding of God, and then to the way it guides the way we will teach and serve. The cross is truly a difficult subject to preach, both because we stand amazed at what it represents and because of what it calls for each of us to do. But however difficult it is, we must not avoid it. Only if we become the church under the cross will we be the genuine body of Christ.

The popular Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins has sold more than 62 million copies since the first volume appeared in 1995. Jerry Falwell pronounced it the most important series of books in the history of modern Christianity. Many readers have assumed it gives the true facts about the way the world will end and what will happen to all the people in it. But according to real biblical scholarship, this series is seriously flawed. Based on a misreading of many scriptures, including Daniel and the Book of Revelation, it has fed a kind of hysteria in the Christian populace that has led many people to reorder their existence in expectation of an impending doom and the sudden, unexpected return of Jesus. In this book, William Powell Tuck carefully and authoritatively refutes the premises and faulty theology of the Left Behind books, critiquing them in the light of genuine biblical scholarship and common sense.

"Baptists have a rich and wonderful heritage. But I have discovered through listening and reading that many persons in our Baptist churches are unfamiliar with this legacy. There are many fine books that have been written about our Baptist history, but I have observed that few persons, especially laypersons, are willing to read these lengthy books. I have attempted in these chapters to present our Baptist heritage in a few pages."