A study conducted under the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis in 1999 of 260 laypeople in twenty-eight African-American and Caucasian congregations to identify elements in preaching that engage and disengage congregations. It pioneers the use of qualitative research to provide a more textured and nuanced account of how diverse congregants experience preaching. It also introduces preachers to the essential tools of effective communication, demonstrates how to identify their effect in the talk of listeners, and then sends them out to become ethnographers of effective communication for their own congregations.