Ministry Preaching

Long sees parables not merely as creative figures of speech but as GPS devices taking hearers to those places where the event of God is happening all around us. This book provides two chapters for each synoptic Gospel. Two introductory chapters additionally situate this book in the history and theology of the parables' interpretation and address questions that preachers have about preaching the parables.

With a balance of wisdom, candor, and scholarly rigor, the beloved archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, traces the human experience from ancient times to today to find threads of connection in our yearning for God, love, honor, beauty, truth, and immortality. He looks at our modern appetite for consumption and individualism and offers a penetrating analysis of how we got here and how we can look to our roots and our faith to find purpose each day amid the noise of competing desires.

Those asked to preach amid tragedy know the anxiety of trying to say appropriate things from God’s word that will comfort and strengthen God’s people when emotions and faith are stretched thin. This indispensable resource helps pastors prepare sermons in the face of tragedies by providing suggestions for how to approach different kinds of tragedy, as well as insight into how to handle the theological challenges of human suffering.

Giving Blood is a groundbreaking resource for active pastors, ministry students, and public speakers who want to communicative effectively to a post-modern culture. Giving Blood is one of the first books of its kind to move preaching beyond its pulpit-centric fixation toward more interactive, participatory modes of communication.

Historic denominations are dying. Church memberships and baptisms plummet with every passing year. Pastors and church leaders are concerned about their churches plateauing. Why? One of the major reasons is because congregations aren't being publicly called to faith in Christ. A growing number of evangelical pastors have opted for non-confrontational approaches to calling people to faith in Jesus. Some seminaries have removed evangelism classes from their curriculum and pastors aren't being taught how to give an effective, God honoring public invitation, void of manipulation.

Ellen Gould White (1827 - 1915) was a cofounder of what later became known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As one of the five volumes of her Conflict of the Ages series, The Desire of Ages is a book about the life and significance of Jesus Christ. White does not relate the story of Jesus in chronological order, but by theme. The book begins with the prophecy about the name, Immanuel, and proceeds with the birth of Jesus and his later life and ministry, including the miracles of Christ, his teachings to his disciples, and his death, resurrection, and ascension.

If you follow the works of best-selling authors Malcolm Gladwell, Faith Popcorn, Daniel Pink, and other trend forecasters, you’ll appreciate learning about over 25 rings of fire that lie ahead for Christians around the world. Len Sweet once again maps the future for the church in this sweeping survey of the 21st century. In the face of eruptive and disruptive culture changes from economics and communications to bioethics and beyond, how do we fight fire with fire, not only catching up to our culture but leading our friends and neighbors toward the feet of Christ?

God is looking for honest preachers that will listen to him and deliver his Gospel message to the world, and you're about to learn how to hear from God while preparing, deliver your sermon in a way that captivates, operate in the Holy Spirit after you have ministered, be more productive in your ministry, and achieve godly success. With many copies sold, How to Preach the Gospel with Power is already helping Christians across the world become more effective ministers of the Gospel, no matter what their calling.

These brief meditations have been collected from the third volume of Francis Grimké's Works, entitled Stray Thoughts and Meditations, a diary written over the last 25 years of his life. Grimké's thoughts on preaching display his gospel-centered piety, his wisdom, and his experience of eventually fifty years of pulpit ministry. Preachers from every Christian denomination will benefit from this African American Presbyterian voice of the early 20th century.

John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), Archbishop of Constantinople, was an early Church Father. This series of eight instructions concerning baptism were given by him, most likely at Antioch around the year 390. Their interest derives from Chrysostom's activities for the baptismal candidates and as their instructor in Christian doctrine and morality.

This audiobook, packed with biblical wisdom and practical guidance from the pastoral trenches, will equip and encourage you in the midst of ministry. Bob Yandian, a veteran pastor of more than 30 years, provides answers to common questions relating to your everyday pastoral duties and personal life.

Charlie Dates, Romell Williams, George Parks, Jr., Terry D. Streeter and a cast of pastors and preaching professors collaborate to demonstrate the power of exposition in the cradle of the Black pulpit. The contributors in this volume give examples of African American biblical exposition in every section of the Old Testament and New Testament. They also explain how to preach from narrative, poetical, prophetic, epistolary, and apocalyptic genres throughout the Scriptures.

What every pastor wants: more time. The clock is every pastor's nemesis. Between meetings, administration, counseling, and other duties, it's hard to find enough time for sermon prep. Unless you change the process. 8 Hours or Less will show preachers how to write the same sermons they've been writing, but in half the time.

The injunction to seek God's kingdom first, implies that we seek it first in point of time. It should be the first thing attended to. It is not merely to be admitted as of first importance, but should really be put first in point of time. The first thoughts of each morning should be given to it. And whenever God's word, or his providence brings before our mind the invitations or the claims of this kingdom, we are to remember that now is the accepted time.

In Become a Preaching Ninja, author and pastor, Lane Sebring, reveals practical preparation and delivery techniques that will help you maximize your impact as a preacher. Discover how to: overcome destructive preaching mindsets; master the often-neglected essentials of preparation; harness the power of storytelling and humor to impact lives; bring your listeners into a moment that leads to life-change; and more.

Here’s the truth: If you don’t get people engaged with your message at the start, they’ll be distracted as your message moves along. With these stories, you’ll have exactly what you need to master the art of the start! These stories aren’t the “Everyone gather around while I tell you a story” kind of stories. And they aren’t the “Once upon a time” kind of stories either. These stories come from weird news, current events, and interesting moments in history. It’s so much fun when you connect them to the topics of your sermons!

When it comes to interacting with guests, churches typically gravitate towards one of two camps: over-the-top, shock-and-awe, let-us-entertain-you or oh-man,-some-people-just-showed-up, underwhelming experience. Each extreme has drawbacks: on one end, people become the center of the universe. On the other, hospitality is effectively ignored in deference to the "serious business" of worship. People Are the Mission proposes a healthy middle, one where guests are esteemed but the gospel is the goal.

Thomas Johnson and Charles Spurgeon lived worlds apart: Johnson, an American slave, born into captivity and longing for freedom and Spurgeon, an Englishman born into relative ease and comfort but, longing, too, for a freedom of his own. Their respective journeys led to an unlikely meeting and an even more unlikely friendship, forged by fate and mutual love for the mission of Christ. Steal Away Home tells a previously untold story set in the 1800s of the relationship between an African-American missionary and one of the greatest preachers to ever live.

Put James and Paul next to each other and some tough-to-answer questions come up. Paul says we're saved by faith alone, not works - and James seems to say the opposite. If you've been around the church for a while, you probably know enough to say "the right thing" if someone asked about these verses. But would your answers hold up to scrutiny? If pressed, would you know what to say? Dive into the life stories of both apostles, learn more about the context of their letters, and discover the truth about the shared message they both proclaimed.

Compiled with the intent to improve the preaching standards in churches at the time and to increase pastoral understanding of Christianity, Homilies is a comprehensive overview of Christian theology, the history and impact of the Reformation, and daily applications of faith and doctrine.