Shaping the Claim helps the preacher discover the core of the message to be preached — the sermonic "claim."

In order to be effective, says McMickle, a sermon needs to address the hearers at three distinct levels; the head or the intellect, the heart or passion and conviction, and the hand or an expected and desired response. In order to discover the biblical "claim" that a sermon should make upon a particular congregation at a particular time, McMickle presents a helpful three-step process: (1) What? (2) So What? and (3) Now What?

The book is keyed to online sermon samples and other Web-based features such as sermon illustrations and art.