Mike Graves begins this book with the question "If preaching is intended to enliven the church, why is it killing so many ministers?" His answer? Because preaching has become divorced from the vitality and diversity of the preacher's daily life. He invites preachers to discover how preaching can be renewing rather than draining.

Peter Stevenson provides an introduction to the practice of preaching. It is designed for people from various church traditions, in the early stages of ministerial formation. Preaching is a complex and challenging business requiring a demanding mixture of skills. People listening to a sermon have the right to expect that a person who stands up to preach, can interpret the Bible competently, has a grasp of core Christian beliefs, and believes what they preach. They also expect someone who has the necessary range of communication skills to put the message across in an accessible way. Such a range of expectations presents daunting challenges to the most experienced preacher. Including practical exercises which could be used by individuals or by groups, this book is suitable for introductory courses in preaching or for modules which consider preaching within an overall focus upon leading public worship.

A companion to the popular Creative Church Leadership, this co-publication with "MODEM" focuses on the practical skills necessary for dynamic leadership in the local church. A wide range of experienced church leaders and management gurus reflect on key components of successful contemporary church leadership including: part one which discusses people, leading a team, choosing and mentoring assistants, leading lay ministers and volunteers, how to delegate, how to resolve conflict; part two which describes organisation, leading churches of different sizes, leading multiple congregations, relating to the local community, initiating and completing projects, how to chair meetings; and, part three which discusses up close and personal, what kind of a leader are you, getting your work/life balance right, thinking strategically, preaching with a purpose, and much more.

Preaching, and the discipline of preaching, is at a crossroads. The changing realities of church and theological education, the diversity of our classrooms, and our increasingly complex community contexts leave us in search of tools to help train a rising generation of preachers for a future whose contours are far from clear. The questions are immense: How to support preachers in contexts that are diverse religiously, culturally, and ethnically, both inside and outside the church? How to help students take varied contexts seriously as they are formed as leaders? In Ways of the Word, a dynamic team of master preachers brings much-needed help. Different in race, gender, age, and tradition, both Sally A. Brown and Luke A. Powery speak with one voice their belief that preaching is Spirit-empowered event: an embodied, vocalized, actively received, here-and-now witness to the ongoing work of God in the world. They aspire to help students and preachers alike to reflect on a journey of learning by doing. They aim to help preachers to become more attuned to the Spirit, more adept in preaching’s component skills, and more self-aware about all that is at stake in proclaiming the redemptive work of God in specific contexts.

A longstanding annual favourite has a new editor and a new, refreshed look. What hasn’t changed is its year-long reliability as a resource for preaching at the principal and the second service (for which preaching resources are scarce) every Sunday of the coming year. Ideal for preachers in all churches that use the Revised Common Lectionary, it also includes sermons for holy days, major saints’ days and special occasions such as Mothering Sunday, harvest, rogation and Christmas services. If preparation time is short, the sermons are complete and can be used as they are, but they will also act as a framework for creating your own sermon texts. It also includes: - an introductory essay for preachers - all-age talks for special occasions - hymn suggestions throughout the year - an index of topics and names A boon for hard-pressed clergy, readers and local preachers everywhere.

Preaching has fallen on hard times with many questioning its relevance and even its validity as a New Testament practice. This symposium of specially commissioned essays draws together an international team of thirteen scholars and pastors to address theimportance of textual preaching in the history and life of the early church, the historic church, and the contemporary church. Contributions include essays on Old Testament preaching; preaching in Eastern Orthodoxy; gender-sensitive preaching; and preaching in the theology of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It also includes essays on a range of homiletical challenges that textual preaching raises for the contemporary preacher, including genre, preaching without notes, inhabiting the text, and preaching without platitudes. A final reflection by Dave Hansen on the state of textual preaching rounds out the collection. The preaching of the gospel stands at the heart of Christian praxis. These essays make a vital contribution to the recovery of the importance of preaching, focused on the text of Scripture. Written with an eye to the pastor and practitioner as well as those in the pews and in the classroom, this is a book that is appealing to a wide range of readers.

This longstanding annual favourite brings a wide variety of preaching voices together to offer a resource for preaching at the principal and the second service (for which preaching resources are scarce) every Sunday of the coming year, plus on principal feast days and seasonal services. Ideal for preachers wherever the 3-year lectionary is used, it also includes sermons for holy days, major saints’ days and special occasions such as Mothering Sunday, harvest, rogation and Christmas services. Hymn suggestions are provided throughout. It also includes an introductory essay to help build preachers’ skills and confidence, this year by Mark Oakley . If preparation time is short, the sermons are complete and can be used as they are, but they will also act as a springboard or framework for creating your own sermon texts. A boon for hard-pressed clergy, readers and local preachers everywhere.

An annual favourite, the Canterbury Preacher's Companion provides a total of 150 complete sermons for the 2020-2021 church year, with hymn suggestions. For each Sunday of the year there are two sermons based on the Principal and Second Service Lectionaries. In addition, it offers at-a-glance summaries of the Bible readings, seasonal introductions, a full colour liturgical calendar and hymns suggestions throughout the year. The sermons are complete and ready to use, or can be used as a base for local adaptation. This is an essential companion for hard-pressed clergy and preachers everywhere.