Our Savior’s Lutheran Church Senior Pastor Glenn Monson wanted to learn more about preaching, but nobody could answer his questions. So he decided to answer them himself.

Monson wrote a book called, “Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted,” which focuses on law and gospel preaching, a type of preaching that gives both comfort and tough love. Monson held a book-signing on Wednesday and will hold another at 10 a.m. on Sunday at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church between church services.

“We want people to have a chance to see the book and hear about it a little bit,” he said.

Monson, who has his doctorate in preaching, decided to research the law and gospel method of preaching and started compiling information.

“It was really out of a need to understand this method clearly,” Monson said. “I had been told my whole preaching career this is what Lutherans were supposed to be doing … and I kept asking, ‘How do I do this?’”

After about five years of research and writing, his book hit the shelves.

“I think it’s probably my desire to help the preachers of the church,” Monson said.

He was even more inspired to write the book after writing a letter to the bishop and receiving a letter in response, telling him it was a good idea.

“That was really a big encouragement to me to stop thinking about it and just get going with it,” Monson said.

He couldn’t find a recent book about the method, only finding some from about 40 years ago.

“It was taught years ago but there hasn’t been a book to come out about it in about 40 years, since like the 1970’s,” Monson said.

Monson said the book explains a type of “classic Lutheran” preaching where there is both comfort — such as saying Jesus is here and forgives sin — and tough love — such as saying people shouldn’t steal or look lustfully.

Since he was interested in the topic as a Lutheran pastor, he decided to update the records with his book. He hoped the book would help other pastors get a better handle on preaching or get a refresher if they were feeling at all lost on the technique.

“It brings balance to faith that we think is important,” Monson said. “Because we certainly understand that all of us need sometimes to be shown, ‘Hey you have some issues,’ and we also need hope.”

Monson noted the method is where the title for the book came from; helping those who are afflicted find hope but also reminding those who feel comfortable that they may not be in as good of a place as they think they are.

The book came out in the beginning of April, and Monson said his wife has read it several times and felt it gave her insight into what it takes to be a preacher. Although the book was intended for pastors, Monson said others can read it and hoped they would start to understand a bit about how preachers think while delivering a message.

“That there is a real process we go through that is necessary,” he said.