In order to preach effectively the preacher must make an emotional connection with those who hear the sermon. Narrative sermonic design provides an effective method that the preacher may use to make emotional connections. The conclusion of the sermon must solidify the emotional connection if the sermon is to have its desired impact. It is difficult enough for the preacher to make emotional connections with the congregation when he or she is their pastor and thus involved in their lives everyday. Those connections become even more difficult if the preacher does not know the congregation, but rather is preaching as a judicatory official, related to the congregation through the ecclesiastical structure, but in many ways a stranger. Through the work of Fred Craddock, Eugene Lowry, Frank Thomas and others this thesis will explore the importance of emotional connections in preaching, especially in the conclusion of the sermon, and how those connections can be made even if the preacher is a member of the judicatory staff related to the congregation.
