This comprehensive resource of five sermons with complete worship services provides a solid, thematically integrated worship and preaching program for Advent and Christmas Eve. It celebrates the deep songs of faith that result from personal encounters with Jesus Christ. The four Advent messages examine biblical personalities, revealing in their experiences real struggles as well as profound joy. You'll explore how Zechariah wrestled to believe what the angel told him concerning the birth of his son; how the prophets searched for God's Word of hope in times of personal and social ferment; how Mary was willing to sacrifice her life for God's purpose; and how the birth of Jesus, heralded by the angels and confirmed by the shepherds, combined fear and joy with divine music. In the final sermon (for Christmas Eve), Oliver links those accounts with our contemporary lives by asking what our personal response will be to the birth of the Savior. Will we allow a song of faith to arise in our lives, in our families, churches, and community? Illustrated with poignant stories and anecdotes, the sermons in Songs For A Savior invite us to hear again the truly good news -- that our song of faith is not so much what we create for God, as how we respond to meeting the Savior and receiving God's gift of salvation through Jesus. Songs For A Savior comes from the heart of one who knows the Savior. Oliver offers these worship resources from his years of helping persons discover the Savior. The liturgies develop a theme for each Sunday, and the sermons weave biblical truths into the complexities of our modern lives, enabling new insights and personal convictions. Congregations experiencing Songs For A Savior will grow in their commitment to love and serve the Savior William R. Harvey Pastor Emeritus, Church of the Savior Canton, Ohio David M. Oliver holds an M.Div. degree from Duke University Divinity School and a D.Min. degree in Spiritual Formation from Asbury Theological Seminary. Currently the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Dover, Ohio, Oliver has served churches in Ohio since 1980, and has participated in the Academy for Preaching. In addition, he is an adjunct professor at Malone College in Canton, Ohio, teaching in the field of spiritual growth and worship. He is the author of Gifts We Bring To Honor The King (CSS).

Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint of heart. As the midnight of the Christian year, the season of Advent is rife with dark, gritty realities. In this book, with her trademark wit and wisdom, Rutledge explores Advent as a time of rich paradoxes, a season celebrating at once Christ’s incarnation and his second coming, and she masterfully unfolds the ethical and future-oriented significance of Advent for the church.

This is an account, at once rigorously theological and warmly devotional, of the death and resurrection of Christ, and their significance for the Christian life. Von Balthasar offers sharp insights into some current controversies-for example, the 'bodiliness' of the Resurrection-and spiritual inspiration for the year round. This scholarly reflection of the climax of the Christian year is an established classic of contemporary Catholic theology.