Christ crucified, the death and resurrection of Christ to reconcile all of creation to God, reveals the character, nature, and will of God to the world. The cross is the central doctrine of the church, in light of which all other doctrines are understood and interpreted. Preaching without the cross yields a truncated message of the gospel and an incomplete picture of God. Preaching that is rooted in a theology of the cross provides a place to begin theological reflection, an interpretive lens for reality, a point of formation and critique for Christian identity, and an impetus for social transformation. The cross is like a string that holds all the valuable pearls of church doctrine, life, and mission. The cross unifies the good news of God and the work God calls the church to do through the work and revelation of Jesus Christ on earth. This thesis will examine what it means to preach a theology of the cross, and what the form of that preaching looks like in a particular context, United Presbyterian Church of Peoria, through a two-year series of sermons and the responses to those sermons by a representative sample of the congregation. The thesis will demonstrate how preaching a cruciform homiletic in this context resulted in the congregation understanding Christ’s death on the cross in new, more positive ways and understanding and moving toward a worldview rooted in the message and meaning of the cross. Lastly, the thesis will show the effect of preaching the cross as the symbol, event, and theology that unites all the work and ministry of the church on the congregation of United Presbyterian Church. Preaching that is centered around the cross leads to a church that is centered around the cross in its worship, education, mission, and fellowship.
