Ministry Preaching

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.

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.

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.

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.

Short, Accessible Guide to Biblical Theology Helps Churches Avoid Heretical Doctrine.

As Dr. King prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons for Strength to Love, a volume of his best-known homilies. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962. Having been arrested for holding a prayer vigil outside Albany City Hall, King and Ralph Abernathy shared a jail cell for 15 days that was, according to King, ''dirty, filthy, and ill-equipped'' and "the worse I have ever seen." While behind bars, he spent uninterrupted time preparing the drafts for classic sermons....

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?

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.

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.

Almost every pastor feels the pressure to get people in the doors. Often, in their zeal for fruit and growth, pastors and church leaders adopt worldly mechanisms for church growth that end up undermining the very call God has given them. Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, was a pastor to well over 5,000 people in a day long before "mega-churches" were the norm. In Spurgeon the Pastor, Geoff Chang shows how Spurgeon models a theological vision of ministry in preaching, baptism and the Lord's supper, meaningful church membership, biblical church leadership, and more.

What was it like to be a woman in the biblical period? It depended, in part, on who you were: a queen, a judge, a primary wife, a secondary wife, a widow, a slave, or some other kind of "ordinary woman". In Women in the Bible, Jaime Clark-Soles investigates how women are presented in Scripture, taking into account cultural views of both ancient societies as well as our own. Most of Christendom still excludes women from religious leadership, and many Christians invoke the Bible to circumscribe women's leadership in the public square and in the home as well.

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.

"No!" cries author Kevin Wells in this compelling audiobook that showcase how heroic priests can faithfully tread the narrow path of holy self-sacrifice first blazed by the apostles themselves. From scores of insightful interviews with modern priests, exorcists, seminary formators, and even disillusioned laity, Wells here draws forth a blueprint for priestly holiness that can once again fill our church with priests abounding with sincere, supernatural faith, on fire with God's love, and moved by the irresistible impulse to save souls, no matter the cost to themselves.

Preach and Deliver is a practical guide that will teach you the best practices for body language, eye contact, pauses, humor, illustrations, notes, and much more. This book will change the way you deliver a sermon so that you can preach in a powerful way that grips the hearts and minds of your audience. But passive listening alone will not make you a better preacher. That's why at the end of every chapter, I have included an action step to apply what you learned.

Craig Groeschel (lifechurch.tv) and his church have hosted an international multichurch campaign called One Prayer, a month-long concerted focus on unifying the many different, diverse churches participating by praying together and serving their local communities. This compilation book features chapters by seventeen passionate church leaders, including Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Jentezen Franklin, Perry Noble, Steven Furtick, and others.

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.

"Tethered to the cross" is how the renowned 19th-century English Baptist Minister Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) described the task of ministry and his approach to preaching. Tracing the development of Spurgeon's thought and his approach to biblical hermeneutics throughout his ministry, theologian and historian Thomas Breimaier argues that Spurgeon viewed the entire Bible through the lens of the cross of Christ.

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.

Tim Chester invites a new generation to experience the Christian life as John Stott envisioned it - not simply a theological puzzle to be solved, but the daily practice of humble service and compassion found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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.