Planning Your Preaching


Book Description

A pastor-created and field-tested, easily adaptable method for planning a comprehensive preaching ministry.




Preaching the Calendar


Book Description

Pastors face a perennial challenge in deciding how to treat special days in the calendar. For days marked in the church year, the challenge is how to speak a fresh word about a familiar theme or story. For days marked in the civil calendar, the challenge is to discern within secular celebrations appropriate connections with the Christian gospel. In Preaching the Calendar, masterful preacher J. Ellsworth Kalas discusses the importance of embracing holidays and special days as occasions when sermons can enlarge and deepen spiritual yearnings. His words of wisdom demonstrate how this type of preaching can be done well and serve as valuable sources of stories and sermon illustrations for pastors eager to help people find new and renewed relationships with God.




Preaching


Book Description

Pastor, preacher, and New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller shares his wisdom on communicating the Christian faith from the pulpit as well as from the coffee shop. Most Christians—including pastors—struggle to talk about their faith in a way that applies the power of the Christian gospel to change people’s lives. Timothy Keller is known for his insightful, down-to-earth sermons and talks that help people understand themselves, encounter Jesus, and apply the Bible to their lives. In this accessible guide for pastors and laypeople alike, Keller helps readers learn to present the Christian message of grace in a more engaging, passionate, and compassionate way.




The God Questions, Exploring Life's Great Questions About God


Book Description

"How do I know that God is real? Is the Bible really the Word of God, or is it just an ancient book? Why are Christians so exclusive? Is there really only one way to heaven? All of these are tough questions, but in The God Questions, they are addressed head on with hard-hitting facts that tell the truth. The God Questions gives brief, simple, and easy to understand answers to the eight key questions everyone asks about Christianity. Divided in 40 short, readable chapters, this book will help you understand God and the universe He created.'"--Book cover




The Women's Lectionary


Book Description

Focusing on passages about women in the Bible and feminine imagery of God,The Women's Lectionaryreimagines the liturgical calendar of preaching for one year. These women are daughters, wives, and mothers. They are also strong leaders, evil queens, and wicked stepmothers. They are disciples, troublemakers, and prophetesses. Ashley Wilcox explores how the feminine descriptions of God in the Bible are similarly varied—how does it change our understanding if God is feminine wisdom, has wings, or is an angry mother bear? Discover this must-have lectionary, perfect for every female clergyperson or anyone seeking to incorporate more insights from a female perspective into their preaching. From well-known figures like Miriam and Mary to lesser-known women like Huldah and Sapphira to feminine metaphors, this comprehensive resource features more than one hundred commentary essays with an Old Testament and New Testament passage for each Sunday of the year and special holy days in the calendar.




The Whole Counsel of God


Book Description

Expository preaching has been on the rise over the last five decades, with more and more pastors preaching through entire books of the Bible systematically. But few, if any, preachers have a long-term plan to teach through every book of the Bible over a lifetime of ministry. Since the whole Bible is God’s Word to his people, all of Scripture is important in order to grow as Christians. Written to make a case for the necessity of a long-term plan for preaching through the entire Bible instead of just through individual books, this is not just a book on how to preach, but also how to plan and prepare long-range preaching programs through the whole counsel of God.




On Church Leadership


Book Description

Mark Driscoll knows something about church leadership. He founded Mars Hill Church in Seattle in 1996, and it is now one of the fastest-growing and most prolific church-planting churches in America. Writing out of his personal experience and biblical conviction, Driscoll examines six important areas of church leadership, packing big truth into this little book, making it a book you’ll actually read.This book also includes some helpful appendices that answer seventeen common practical questions about church leadership, as well as a sample membership covenant and a list of recommended reading for further study on church leadership.On Church Leadership is part of a series of thorough, inexpensive, and accessible books that give clear, biblical answers to difficult theological questions and controversies. Through this series, readers will get a solid and simple introduction to a major doctrine by investing just a little time and money. Praise for the A Book You’ll Actually Read series:“Mark has a gift of taking weighty ideas and expressing them in clear and lively language.” Bruce A. Ware, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary“Serious, informed, reverent, but not technical discussions of great themes.” D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School“Simply and superbly written! Mark Driscoll has given us tools that can be placed in the hands of a skeptic or seeker, a new believer or mature saint.” Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary“These accessible books will encourage believers to see that theology is not an afterthought in the mission of God and the life of his church.” Ed Stetzer, Director of LifeWay Research“These books are well worth an hour of your time.” Craig Groeschel, Founding Pastor of LifeChurch.tv and author of Confessions of a Pastor




On Preaching


Book Description

Preaching Magazine's 2015 Book of the Year If you are a pastor, you know the importance of preaching. You have spent time learning and refining the art of preaching because it is vital to the life of God's people—including the preacher. But you probably also find it challenging. On Preaching is a masterful resource that will refresh your soul and revitalize your preaching ministry. Drawing upon Scripture and years of preaching experience, H. B. Charles offers a practical resource for pastors, seminarians, church planters, and Bible teachers that is full of energy and wonderfully enjoyable. He gives tips like, "Avoid indecent exposure—get your wife's permission before using your family in the message" and "Illustrate! A good illustration is like a window on a house. It helps your listeners see in or out." Written in a very clear and concise manner, this resource is formatted into 30 short chapters that can easily be read as a devotional. On Preaching will encourage seasoned preachers to dig deeper into the basics as they pause and reflect on the effectiveness of their ministry. It will also serve as a spring board for those who are just beginning a preaching ministry.




The Power of Multisensory Preaching and Teaching


Book Description

Most preaching and teaching in the church engages only one of the senses—hearing. In The Power of Multisensory Preaching and Teaching, Rick Blackwood shows how recognizing and engaging the multiple senses of the congregation can lead to greater impact. Blackwood presents both biblical evidence and scientific research showing that the more senses we stimulate in teaching and preaching, the greater the levels of learner attention, comprehension, and retention. Blackwood addresses both the “why” and the “how” of multisensory communication. Regardless of one’s current skill level, this practical book can help anyone add multi-sensory elements to messages in order to take communication to the next level—more compelling, clear, and memorable. As a result of reading this book readers can be more effective as a communicator and teacher. The book includes tools, examples, and worksheets.




Preaching with Freshness


Book Description

(Foreword by Jay Adams)"If more books on preaching were as interesting as this, then perhaps we would have more interesting preachers." --Howard Hendricks