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Designed to empower preachers as they lead their congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary. This nine-volume series offers creative commentary on each reading through the lens of its connections to the rest of Scripture and then seeing the reading through the lenses of culture, film, fiction, ethics, and other aspects of contemporary life. Commentaries on the ...

Connections Year A, Three-Volume Set

Connections: Year A, Volume 3

Season after Pentecost

The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann — Three-Volume Set

"These sermons are themselves versions of that dangerous but longed-for doxology, and they move from ruthlessly honest cultural analysis to confident praise with such linguistic power that one can easily overlook the superb detail, the impressive craft, and the fine tooling employed by Brueggemann, the master preacher. The impact of these sermons comes not simply from the finished artwork but also from the artist's technique—the preparation of the homiletic canvas, the mix of pigment, and the br...

The Collected Sermons of David Bartlett

This collection of fifty-two sermons shows beloved New Testament scholar David Bartlett at his best. Bartlett, who died in 2017, spent his career teaching and mentoring preachers at The University of Chicago Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and Columbia Theological Seminary, as well as serving as a pastor in American Baptist churches. Thus, he has generations of friends and former students who knew him for his quick wit, passion for justice, and deep knowledge ...

The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann, Volume 3

This collection features sixty sermons by Walter Brueggemann, preached mostly in the last five years. For his final public appearances, he preached at various churches and the Festival of Homiletics, including his last address there in 2018. Most of these are based on lectionary texts, with numerous sermons on Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter texts. Preachers will find inspiration in the handful of sermons covering special occasions or themes, including confirmation, evangelism, and funerals.

Connections: Year A, Volume 2

Lent through Pentecost

Connections: Year A, Volume 1

Advent through Epiphany

The Preacher’s Bible Handbook

When it comes to understanding a passage in the Bible, context is everything. What historical events surround a book’s composition? What larger literary unit is a given passage part of? What central themes explored by the book touch on the verses in question? If we don’t know the answer to questions like these, we are ill-prepared to speak to–and especially preach about–a passage’s meaning. The Preacher’s Bible Handbook aims to meet this need for extra help in preparing the sermon. Essays on ea...

A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series, Volume 2

Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C

Both lectionary preachers and topical preachers will enjoy the best of both worlds with this second volume of sermon series ideas designed to frame consecutive weeks of lectionary texts into seasonal and short-term series. With contributors from seven denominations, this comprehensive resource offers new perspectives and fresh ideas for diving deep into biblical themes in ways that make congregants eager to come back for the next sermon and to invite others as well. Twenty-eight series plans inc...

Marriage Service

Pack of 3

The Marriage Service is the perfect gift for newlyweds. This commemorative resource features one complete version of the marriage service from the 2018 edition of the Book of Common Worship. It also includes a special dedication page.

Connections: Year C, Volume 3

Season after Pentecost

Connections: Year C, Volume 2

Lent through Pentecost

The Lord’s Prayer

Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church

C. Clifton Black provides a thorough analysis of the most famous prayer in the Christian church, the Lord’s Prayer. He begins with an impressionist painting of how the ancients prayed during Jesus’ time in order to set the context for understanding the prayer he taught his disciples. Throughout the book, Black systematically interprets the rich meanings of each part of the Lord’s prayer. Additionally, he includes an overview of Christian thought on the Lord’s Prayer from early church mothers and...

Making a Scene in the Pulpit

Vivid Preaching for Visual Listeners

How can preachers ensure that their sermons continue to engage listeners in a world defined by visual media and the short, segmented delivery of information? Alyce McKenzie harnesses the element of drama and the human fascination with scenes to offer ministers a modern means of sermon development and delivery.McKenzie’s core strategy is to invite listeners into scenes—whether from Scripture or contemporary life—and, once they are there, to point them toward the larger story of God’s relationship...

Connections: Year C, Volume 1

Advent through Epiphany

Feasting on the Word Children’s Sermons for Year B

Many pastors are confused about what to say during children's time in churches. Feasting on the Word Children's Sermons for Year B offers practical suggestions for preparing and delivering the children's sermon. After explaining the importance and purpose of the children's sermon, noted Christian educator Carol Wehrheim provides a retelling of each Sunday's Bible story- based on the Revised Common Lectionary-for the entire church year. In addition, she provides a few stories for sp...

Acts

A Theological Commentary on the Bible

In this new commentary for the Belief series, award-winning author and theologian Willie James Jennings explores the relevance of the book of Acts for the struggles of today. While some see Acts as the story of the founding of the Christian church, Jennings argues that it is so much more, depicting revolution—life in the disrupting presence of the Spirit of God. According to Jennings, Acts is like Genesis, revealing a God who is moving over the land, "putting into place a holy...

Heaven on Earth

God's Call to Community in the Book of Revelation

Much of the literature on the book of Revelation paints a frightening apocalyptic vision of the end times. Michael Battle offers an alternative look at Revelation in this new work, seeing it instead as a hopeful call to bring heaven on earth. Battle explores the problematic imagery found in Revelation before showing how similar problems play out in our contemporary world. Battle sees Revelation as a guide that shows us that we can live out God's call for heaven on earth by living in...

Preaching the Women of the Old Testament

Who They Were and Why They Matter

Take an in-depth look at over forty fierce, faithful, and strong women featured in the Old Testament with Preaching the Women of the Old Testament. Inside this unique resource author Lynn Japinga interprets the stories of various biblical women, including Eve, Rebekah, Dinah, Tamar, Miriam, Deborah, Jael, Abigail, Bathsheba, and Vashti. Along with providing an interpretation, Japinga demonstrates how the character's story has been read in Christian tradition and offers sermon ideas...

A Unique Time of God

Karl Barth's WWI Sermons

World War I changed Karl Barth's theology forever. In this book William Klempa presents for the first time in English thirteen sermons that offer Barth's unique view and commentary on the Great War. Barth saw the war as "a unique time of God," believing it to represent God's judgment on militarism. The sermons reveal a deep strain of theological wrestling with the war's meaning, as Barth comes to see the conflict as the logical outcome of all human attempts to create God in our own...

The Witness of Preaching, Third Edition

This is a newly revised edition of one of the standard introductory preaching textbooks on the market today. Beginning with a solid theological basis, veteran preacher and best-selling author Thomas G. Long offers a practical, step-by-step guide to writing a sermon. Long centers his approach around the biblical concept of witness. To be a preacher, Long posits, is to be a witness to God's work in the world—one who sees before speaking, one whose task is to "tell the truth, th...

Questions Preachers Ask

Essays in Honor of Thomas G. Long

"How do we preach in a way that affirms Christian theology while also honoring the insights of other faith traditions?" "How do we preach about and help create genuine Christian community in a social networking culture?" Questions Preachers Ask examines many questions that are on the minds of preachers today, questions that focus on how to preach the gospel in a culture where biblical knowledge cannot be presumed and where the Bible is often viewed as untrustworthy. Well-known preac...

Feasting on the Word Children’s Sermons for Year A

Many pastors are confused about what to say during children's time in churches. Feasting on the Word Children's Sermons for Year A offers practical suggestions for preparing and delivering the children's sermon. After explaining the purpose of the children's sermon, noted Christian educator Carol Wehrheim provides a story for each Sunday of the church year based on the Revised Common Lectionary. In addition, she provides a few stories for special moments in the church's life, such a...

Rethinking Celebration

From Rhetoric to Praise in African American Preaching

"This book is a clarion call for African American preachers to think more deeply about the aims and ends of their preaching—namely to stop putting so much emphasis on celebratory endings to our sermons and focus more on the substantive content in our sermons. Our so-called celebratory preaching, designed to excite the congregation into action through a highly emotional closing of the sermon, has had the opposite effect. Rather than inducing action, it has lulled generations o...