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Sermon Sparks: 122 Ideas to Ignite Your Preaching
by Thomas H. TroegerA working pastor is always looking for fresh preaching perspectives. This hands-on resource from the author of a long-standing column in the journal Lectionary Homiletics covers the entire three-year lectionary cycle with brief reflections designed to generate fresh and timely sermon ideas. Each reflection is limited to two pages and provides an interpretation of one or more lections for every month of the year. While some focus on a single lection, others draw forth a theological/pastoral theme that stretches across several lections, suggesting how to approach an entire month homiletically.
Sermon Treks: Trailways to Creative Preaching
by Ronald J. AllenThe lectionary is a helpful homiletical tool. But there are times when lectionary preaching does not meet a congregation's needs. Sermon Treks offers preachers and students an invigorating selection of new sermon-planning trails, for use as sermon series or for single sermons. The options presented here are practical and theologically responsible. Some are rooted in ancient forms of proclamation; others are new. All provide clear but creative guidance for the preacher, and a path that will lead to more effective sermons.
Sermon on the Mount (The Story of God Bible Commentary)
by Scot McKnightEmphasizing the historical distance between the New Testament and our contemporary culture, The Sermon on the Mount by Scot McKnight, part of the new The Story of God Bible Commentary series, offers helpful contextual insights for those seeking to discern how to live out the Bible in today’s world. Perfect for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and lay people alike, this highly anticipated series provides a clear and compelling exposition of the text in the context of the Bible’s overarching story. The authors move away from “application” language, which has been criticized as being too simplistic, encouraging instead a wider perspective and discussion of how the biblical story can be lived today. Offering a new type of application commentary for today’s context, the Story of God Bible Commentary series explains and illuminates Scripture as God’s Story, with each New Testament text examined as embedded in its canonical and historical setting, in order to foster discernment in living the story faithfully and creatively with and for the Church in the 21st Century.
Sermon on the Mount 1: Connect with God
by Bill Hybels Kevin G. HarneySix-session small group studies to build true community within the church and among the world. Sermon on the Mount 1: In this greatest of all sermons, Jesus inspires, encourages, and challenges us to love God and love others in fresh and practical ways. He teaches us how we can enter into a more intimate relationship with the Father. Six-session small group studies to build true community within the church and among the world
Sermon on the Mount 2: Connect with Others (New Community Bible Study Series)
by Bill Hybels Kevin G. HarneySix-session small group studies to build true community within the church and among the world. Sermon on the Mount 2: In this sermon, Jesus calls his disciples to live out a love relationship with every person they meet--a relationship inspired and guided by his teaching and infused with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Sermon on the Mount Leader Guide: A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven (Sermon on the Mount)
by Amy-Jill LevineHow is the follower of Jesus to understand the words of the Old Testament? How are those words relevant to the New Covenant he is establishing? What might the words of the Lord’s Prayer have conveyed to his initial followers, and why is that historical information essential to the prayer two millennia later?In Sermon on the Mount, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine takes a detailed and colorful overview of Matthew 5-7, collectively known as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Through Dr. Levine’s engaging method of biblical interpretation, readers will come away with a solid understanding of the Sermon on the Mount in its historical and theological context.Chapters include: The Beatitudes The Extensions Practicing Piety Our Father Finding Your Treasure Living into the KingdomExplore the major topics in the most popular sermon ever delivered and unpack how Jesus makes his points using a solid knowledge of Hebrew Scriptures and moral teachings. The Leader Guide includes session outline for each group meeting with Scripture, prayer, opening activity, discussion questions, activity, and ending call to action.
Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven (Sermon on the Mount)
by Amy-Jill LevineThe Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7, contains some of Jesus most profound and most memorable teachings. What might these teachings have mean to his disciples, and to the others who first heard them? How do they enhance our reading of the rest of the Gospel of Matthew, and how do they speak across the centuries to listeners today? How, if we pay careful attention to his words, does Jesus provide us a road map to living as God would have us live?In Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine introduces the major topics in the Sermon on the Mount, explains historical and theological contexts, and shows how the words of Jesus echo his Jewish tradition and speak forward to reach hearts and minds today.This book provides a rich and challenging learning experience for the individual reader and also makes a wonderful, six-week group study with the additional Leader Guide, DVD, and 40-day readings
Sermon on the Mount: Christian Counter-culture (LifeGuide Bible Studies)
by John StottPDF download with a single-user license; available from InterVarsity Press and other resellers.
Sermon on the Mount: Restoring Christ's Message to the Modern Church
by Charles L. QuarlesMatthew 5-7, popularly known as the Sermon on the Mount, has been described as "the essence of Christianity" and inspired many commentaries. However, New Testament professor Charles Quarles believes a fair number of those volumes either present Christ's sermon as containing an impossible spiritual ethic or instead dilute its message so much that hardly any ethical challenge remains. Also concerning, a recent Gallup poll indicated only one-third of American adults recognize Jesus as the source of this teaching that has often inspired people who do not even embrace evangelical Christianity. <p><p>Quarles' new analysis, part of the New American Commentary Studies in Bible & Theology series, aims to fill the gap between these extremes by dealing with the important questions of whether believers can live by the Sermon on the Mount today, and, if so, how. Looking at the Beatitudes, what it means to be salt and light, and the demand for superior righteousness, he writes to restore this crucial section of our Lord's teaching to its proper place in His church.
Sermones que transforman vidas
by Daniel OverdorfCuando Erwin Lutzer, pastor de la Iglesia Moody, y su esposa, Rebecca, se dieron cuenta de que hoy día prácticamente nadie memoriza las Escrituras, decidieron crear este recurso práctico y relevante, repleto de versículos poderosos y explicaciones interesantes, para ayudar a estimular un hambre espiritual en la vida de los lectores. Con más de 35 temas y preguntas para la reflexión y el estudio, los lectores podrán descubrir cómo la Palabra de Dios... Estos versículos especialmente seleccionados proporcionan una base de sabiduría y esperanza para mostrar a los lectores quién es Dios y lo que Él ha hecho por ellos, así como quiénes son ellos y cómo pueden vivir con éxito la vida cristiana. After Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of the Moody Church, and his wife, Rebecca, realized that memorizing Scripture has nearly become a lost pursuit today, they decided to create this practical, relevant resource filled with powerful verses and insightful explanations to help stimulate a spiritual hunger in readers' own lives. With more than thirty-five topics and questions for reflection and further study, readers will discover how God's Word will... These handpicked verses provide a foundation of wisdom and hope to show readers who God is and what He has done for them, as well as who they are and how they can successfully live the Christian life.
Sermons That Sing: Music and the Practice of Preaching (Dynamics of Christian Worship)
by Noel A. SnyderPreaching and music are both regular elements of Christian worship across the theological spectrum. But they often don't interact or inform each other in meaningful ways. In this Dynamics of Christian Worship volume, theologian, pastor, and musician Noel A. Snyder considers how the church's preaching might be helpfully informed by musical theory. Just as a good musical composition employs technical elements like synchrony, repetition, and meter, the same should be said for good preaching that seeks to engage hearts and minds with the good news of Jesus Christ. By drawing upon music that lifts the soul, preachers might craft sermons that sing.
Sermons by the Devil
by William Shuler HarrisThe part that Satan plays in the drama of a human life is often larger than a person will admit. Each one of us is not only acting, but we are constantly acted upon by one or the other of two great influences. The Good Spirit endeavors to lead us to the skies, and its angels are ever willing to minister to our real needs. The Evil Spirit, either openly or under cover, seeks to destroy our mind with the untruth by preaching to us his black sermons of death. Some of these sermons are short, others are longer, and at times they are delivered to us in the language of an angel with all the dignity that good scholarship might command.This volume was commenced with the purpose of tearing off his Satanic mask so that people might see more clearly the real source of these dark sermons. There are many people who, after yielding to temptation, will declare that they have acted independent of any evil influence. Satan is pleased to see a person rest in the shadow of such a delusion, but it is better for each one of us to know that either the good or evil spirit is seeking to be the guest of our thoughts, and it depends upon our attitude who will be entertained.We aimed to keep the book clean throughout, even though we tried to bring out the real character of the unclean Spirit. We have advanced only such arguments of Satan as he uses continually in his practical dealings with people. We were particular that none of the chapters should be a source of temptation, but that they might give Satan his proper setting more clearly in the minds of the reader, and thereby destroy the edge of his sword as much as possible.
Sermons from Duke Chapel: Voices from "A Great Towering Church"
by William H. WillimonMany of America's greatest Protestant preachers--Paul Tillich, William Sloane Coffin, Barbara Brown Taylor, Fleming Rutledge, Peter J. Gomes, Billy Graham, and others--have spoken powerfully from the pulpit of the "great towering church" that is the spiritual and architectural center of Duke University. This collection of fifty-eight of the most notable sermons proclaimed from that pulpit commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the groundbreaking for Duke Chapel. It is a sweeping panorama of sermons selected and edited by Bishop William H. Willimon, Dean of the Chapel for twenty years and one of the most widely read writers on preaching in America. Opening with the sermon preached in June 1935 at the dedication of the Chapel and closing with one by Willimon delivered at the beginning of the 2003-4 school year, this volume presents Protestant Christianity at its most eloquent and prophetic. Some sermons are pure meditations on biblical texts; others are period pieces in the best sense of the term, reflecting on such contemporary concerns as civil rights, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and the wars in Europe, Vietnam, and Iraq. Willimon provides a brief introduction to each sermon, commenting on the work and thought of the preacher. Diverse in subject and style, the sermons collected in this volume are a treasure for those who love fine preaching, a resource for those studying the history of homiletics, and a light to rekindle the memories of those who have worshiped in the Chapel over the years.
Sermons to the People: Advent, Christmas, New Year, Epiphany
by Augustine Of HippoA superb new translation brings the words of Augustine the preacher stirringly to life!When the great Saint Augustine was called from his country home to become Bishop of Hippo in the fourth century, his new responsibilities took him away from the solitude of his writing and into the glare of the public eye. The author of two of the greatest works of religious literature, Confessions and City of God, Augustine became a shepherd to the people, inspiring and enlightening them with his sermons. His skills as a speaker were as great-if not greater-than his skills as a writer. According to his friend Possidius, "Those who read what Augustine wrote on the divine topics do get something out of them. But those who saw and heard him in person-they were the ones who got heaven and Earth." Sermons to the People collects the homilies on the liturgical seasons of the Church Saint Augustine delivered over the course of his lifetime. This Image edition includes the first sermons in that vast collection: from Advent, Christmas, New Year's, and the Epiphany. Newly translated by William Griffin, they address timeless concerns, including the problems of materialism and the intellectual difficulties of faith. Griffin renders the sermons with such immediacy, it is as though he had been present when Augustine spoke to his flock.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Sermons: Biblical Wisdom For Daily Living
by Peter J. GomesThe man Time magazine hailed as one of America's finest preachers presents a collection of forty timeless addresses to guide us through the year. With his characteristic eloquence and compassion, quoting from scripture as well as from T.S. Eliot and Woody Allen, Gomes offers us the tools we need to understand the wisdom of the Bible and the joy and inspiration it can bring to everyday life.
Serpent in the Garden: Amish Sexuality in a Changing World
by James A. CatesThe first book to examine the complexity of sexual identity, philosophy, and behavior in Amish culture.The Amish offer a startling contrast to the postmodern view of sexuality and gender roles. After the sexual revolution of the 1960s, mainstream American culture never looked back. Meanwhile, the Amish never looked forward. In twenty-first-century Amish communities, heteronormative sexuality is still based on a unifying principle: an understanding of sexuality as emerging from a divine plan. In the eyes of the Amish, sex is squandered by those who embrace it as hedonistic or who carve out a sexual identity that moves them away from that singular, God-given purpose. But this communal emphasis on sex for procreation does not mean that the Amish do not possess a complex range of sexual identities and opinions.In Serpent in the Garden, clinical psychologist James A. Cates breaks new ground in the study of Amish sexuality by examining this shrouded, rarely discussed subject. The first book to bring Amish sexuality into primary focus, this volume argues that, because the Amish are a sexual minority, queer theory is the ideal framework from which to observe their views on sex, sexuality, and gender. The book offers a broad view of sexuality in Amish culture that includes the challenges that gays and lesbians face in the community, as well as an exploration of Amish gender roles, their views toward intimacy, their responses to cases of child sexual abuse, and the role of fetishes among the Amish. Cates draws from multiple perspectives and years of research on the Amish themselves. He also looks at pushback against alternative behaviors or identities, as well as Amish success in keeping mainstream values at bay. With this book, Cates establishes Amish sexuality as a topic worthy of professional attention. Offering readers a more sophisticated understanding of the Amish and of sexual expression among cultures, Serpent in the Garden will appeal to scholars working on gender and sexuality, the Amish, and social service professionals who serve the Amish community.
Serpent of Light: The Movement of the Earth's Kundalini and the Rise of the Female Light
by Drunvalo Melchizedek“Serpent of Light is a masterful description of the great Earth activations that are occurring during the end of the Mayan Calendar.” —Barbara Hand Clow, author of The Mayan CodeEvery 13,000 years on Earth a sacred and secret event takes place that changes everything. Mother Earth’s Kundalini energy emerges from its resting place in the planet’s core and moves like a snake across the surface of our world. Once at home in ancient Lemuria, it moved to Atlantis, then to the Himalayan mountains of India and Tibet, and with every relocation changed our idea of what spiritual means. And gender. And heart. This time, with much difficulty, the “Serpent of Light” has moved to the Andes Mountains of Chile and Peru.Multi-dimensional, multi-disciplined and multi-lived, for the first time in this book, Drunvalo begins to tell his stories of thirty-five years spent in service to Mother Earth. Follow him around the world as he follows the guidance of Ascended Masters, his two spheres of light, and his own inner growing knowledge. His story is a living string of ceremonies to help heal hearts, align energies, right ancient imbalances, and balance the living Earth’s Unity Consciousness Grid—in short, to increase our awareness of the indivisibility of life in the universe. We are all—rocks and people and interdimensional beings—one!“Life may seem to be business as usual, but it is not. We are changing fast . . . Remember this for life is going to present stranger things to you in your lifetime, and they all have meaning and purpose . . . Only Mother Earth and ancient Maya know what’s going to happen.” —from Serpent of Light
Serpientes en el aula: El envenenamiento de la educación moderna y cómo la Iglesia puede remediarlo
by Thomas KorcokSerpientes en el aula responde a preguntas que profesores, pastores y padres se plantean a menudo. Pese a sus mejores esfuerzos, ¿ por qué los niñ os rechazan tan a menudo la fe cristiana? La respuesta se encuentra en las premisas teoló gicas que sustentan gran parte de la educació n contemporá nea. Aunque la clase dirigente educativa suele presentar sus modelos como productos derivados de investigaciones basadas en pruebas y teoló gicamente neutras, no lo son en absoluto. Má s bien, se basan en teologí as diametralmente opuestas a la enseñ anza cristiana ortodoxa.Basá ndose en su experiencia como educador, pastor y profesor universitario, el Dr. Korcok revela los principios teoló gicos de algunos de los pedagogos que han influido en la configuració n del pensamiento educativo contemporá neo y descubre có mo han diseñ ado intencionadamente la educació n para apartar a los niñ os de la fe cristiana.Para los profesores y los padres cristianos, existe una alternativa. El Dr. Korcok presenta el modelo clá sico de educació n en artes liberales que, por casi dos mil añ os, ha servido eficazmente a la Iglesia como un modelo educativo prá ctico y teoló gicamente sano para formar a los niñ os para una vida de fe.
Servant Leadership in Action: How You Can Achieve Great Relationships and Results
by Ken Blanchard Renee BroadwellEdited by legendary business author Ken Blanchard and featuring contributions by authors like Simon Sinek, Bren Brown, Stephen M. R. Covey, and Marshall Goldsmith, this collection offers expert advice on how to implement an increasingly popular and highly effective approach to leadership.Servant leadership is the secret behind the success of some of the world's leading organizations. Succinctly put, serving leaders lead by serving their people, not by exalting themselves. Through the stories and reflections of leading businesspeople, bestselling authors, and spiritual leaders, this collection offers tools for implementing this proven but radical leadership model. The book is organized into three sections: -What is Servant Leadership? describes different aspects of servant leadership -Models of Servant Leadership focuses on people who have been identified as classic servant leaders-Putting Servant Leadership to Work features firsthand accounts of how servant leadership has been implemented in various organizations and the difference it has made in both results and human satisfaction.
Servant of All: Status, Ambition, and the Way of Jesus
by Craig C. HillThere exists a deep tension between the biblical view of servant leaders and the status that Christian leaders today often desire and pursue. Many pastors and other church leaders, like it or not, struggle with ambition. In this book Craig Hill shows how the New Testament can help Christian leaders deal with this problem honestly and faithfully. Hill examines such passages as the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2 to show how New Testament authors helped early Christians construct their identity in ways that overturned conventional status structures and hierarchies. Status and ambition, Hill says, are not often addressed forthrightly in the church, as Christians either secretly indulge those impulses or feebly try to quash them. Hill'sServant of All will help Christian leaders reconcile their human aspirations and their spirituality, empowering them to minister with integrity.
Servant of All: Status, Ambition, and the Way of Jesus
by Craig C. HillThere exists a deep tension between the biblical view of servant leaders and the status that Christian leaders today often desire and pursue. Many pastors and other church leaders, like it or not, struggle with ambition. In this book Craig Hill shows how the New Testament can help Christian leaders deal with this problem honestly and faithfully. Hill examines such passages as the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2 to show how New Testament authors helped early Christians construct their identity in ways that overturned conventional status structures and hierarchies. Status and ambition, Hill says, are not often addressed forthrightly in the church, as Christians either secretly indulge those impulses or feebly try to quash them. Hill'sServant of All will help Christian leaders reconcile their human aspirations and their spirituality, empowering them to minister with integrity.
Servant of the Crown and Steward of the Church: The Career of Philippe of Cahors (Medieval Academy Books)
by William Chester JordanIn the thirteenth century, radical reformers – churchmen, devout laywomen and laymen, and secular rulers – undertook Hherculean efforts aimed at the moral reform of society. No principality was more affected by these impulses than France under its king, Louis IX or "Saint Louis." The monarch surrounded himself with gifted, energetic moralists to carry out his efforts. Servant of the Crown and Steward of the Church explores the career of one of the most influential of King Louis’s reformers, Philippe of Cahors. Born into a bourgeois family dwelling on the periphery of the medieval kingdom of France, Philippe rose through the ecclesiastical hierarchy to the office of judge. There he came to the attention of royal administrators, who recommended him for the king’s service. He ascended rapidly, and was eventually entrusted with the royal seal, effectively making constituting him the chancellor of the kingdom, the highest member of the royal administration. Louis IX secured his election as bishop of Évreux in 1269. Using the records of Philippe’s work in Reims, Paris, and Évreux, William Chester Jordan reconstructs Philippe’s his career, providing a fascinating portrait of the successes and failures of reform in the thirteenth century.
Servants & Friends: A Biblical Theology of Leadership
by Skip BellIn Servants and Friends, Skip Bell and his team examine and correlate the breadth of evidence in the Old and New Testaments. <P><P>They trace the nature of God s intent, and bring it all together in a fresh and challenging theological understanding that may radically alter what we have thought leadership really is.
Servants and Fools: A Biblical Theology of Leadership
by Arthur BoersLeadership is a much-discussed topic. What does it actually mean for us as Christians? Does Christian leadership have its own distinctive shape and character? In Servants and Fools, A Biblical Theology of Leadership, Arthur Boers examines Jesus’s pattern of leadership. Boers shows how this pattern is rooted in service and sacrifice, is cautious about power and hierarchies, and prioritizes the vulnerable. In other words, it often reverses what we expect of leadership, and is different from what we read in most leadership literature. Servants and Fools is a unique resource for students and practitioners across denominations. It offers a foundational perspective on leadership and guidance for practical application in the reader’s daily life and ministry. Arthur Boers has at last written the book we have sorely needed, a book that is destined to become the main text in my seminary courses in church leadership, a book that is sure to be enthusiastically received by thousands of contemporary Christian leaders. Boers energetically underscores the joyful peculiarity of specifically Christian leadership. His book is unique: a biblically based, Christologically grounded defense of leadership in the name of Christ. --Will Willimon, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School, United Methodist Bishop, retired, and author of Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained LeadershipServants and Fools is a brilliant and essential contribution to any serious study of leadership: Robust, faithful, insightful biblical teaching. A judicious, knowledgeable harvest of the best contributions from leadership theorists and practitioners. Plus humor, in-the-trenches experiences, and practical applications. I cannot imagine ever teaching another class on leadership without assigning and discussing Arthur Boers’s book!--David W. Gill, Mockler-Phillips Professor of Workplace Theology & Ethics, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary In Servants and Fools: A Biblical Theology of Leadership, Arthur Boers deconstructs the contemporary cult of "leadership" and serves up a refreshingly Biblical alternative. It is a great cautionary tale for today’s churches, seminaries, and Christian non-profits. At the same time, it offers great insight for secular organizations and leaders as well. --John Suk, author, former editor of The Banner, and pastor of Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto, Canada.One of Hearts & Minds Bookstore's BEST BOOKS OF 2015!
Servants in Charge: A Training Guide for Elders and Deacons
by Keith M. BaileyServants in Charge is a training guide for elders and deacons with a study guide included. Servants in Charge define the roles of elders and deacons and offers practical suggestions for selecting these important leaders. And for servants who find themselves in charge, there are guidelines toward effective and fruitful ministry. Have you ever been in an office or a place of business when someone walked in and asked, "Who's in charge here?"' Can it be that the people who enter your church ask the same question but it is important to realize the answer is not a mystery. In a beautiful parable about His second coming, Jesus made it clear that His servants are in charge. These people are known not so much for their position or power, but for their attitude of true servant hood. In Servants in Charge we find that Dr. Bailey deals with the topics of who a deacon and elder are to be to what their qualifications are from a scriptural basis. He also goes on to explain their biblically based ministries and their spiritual gifts as laid out in the New Testament. He completes this short study with a guide for preparation for them and their election and consecration. A great must have for the church today.