Holds Paul up as a model of faithful and effective preaching to help pastors and seminarians evaluate their own preaching.

When You Talk, Are People Changed? Whether you speak from the pulpit, podium, or the front of a classroom, you don’t need much more than blank stares and faraway looks to tell you you’re not connecting. Take heart before your audience takes leave! You can convey your message in the powerful, life-changing way it deserves to be told. An insightful, entertaining parable that’s an excellent guide for any speaker, Communicating for a Change takes a simple approach to delivering effectively. Join Pastor Ray as he discovers that the secrets to successful speaking are parallel to the lessons a trucker learns on the road. By knowing your destination before you leave (identifying the one basic premise of your message), using your blinkers (making transitions obvious), and implementing five other practical points, you’ll drive your message home every time! “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” “Once upon a time…” “In the beginning…” Great stories capture and hold an audience’s attention from start to finish. Why should it be any different when you stand up to speak? In Communicating for a Change, Andy Stanley and Lane Jones offer a unique strategy for communicators seeking to deliver captivating and practical messages. In this highly creative presentation, the authors unpack seven concepts that will empower you to engage and impact your audience in a way that leaves them wanting more. “Whether you are a senior pastor with weekly teaching responsibilities or a student pastor who has bern charged with engaging the hearts and minds of high school students, this book is a must-read.” -Bill Hybels, Senior pastor, Willow Creak Community Church “A very practical resource for every biblical communicator who wants to go from good to great.” -Ed Young, Senior pastor, Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas “To communicate effectively, you have to connect. Andy has been connecting with people for years, and now he’s sharing his insights with the rest of us.” -Jeff Foxworthy, Comedian Story Behind the Book Andy Stanley and Lane Jones are on staff at one of America ’s largest churches, North Point Community. Leaders of thousands of people, they regularly speak in front of large groups. They also listen to numerous speakers and know the disastrous effects of a poorly delivered message. This book is the result of their efforts to make public speaking—one of the most common fear-inducing activities known to mankind—simple, easy, and even enjoyable, so that God’s messages will readily produce the life-changing results they should.

Considering the pervasive immorality and high divorce rate of our contemporary Christian culture, we evidently need a biblically based, theologically compelling, practical understanding of sex, dating, and relationships. Pastors Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas counteract this problem with their paradigm-shifting view of purity and relationships—a view that challenges even the basic assumptions of evangelical subculture. Unlike most books on dating, this one cuts straight to the heart of dating relationships, asserting with confidence that the line must be drawn at "no sexual activity" whatever. Few have dared to define and apply the Bible's understanding of purity in premarital relationships to this degree, but Heistand and Thomas have done it. Furthermore, both authors are vocational pastors who communicate regularly with the target audience and have a proven ability to express biblical truth in a winsome and compelling manner. Sex, Dating, and Relationships adds a new, almost provocative voice to the conversation that, with straightforward theological insight, pleads with Christians to get serious about honoring Christ with their sexuality.

Well known for his teaching, writing, and editing of Magnificat, the widely popular monthly publication containing the Scripture readings and prayers for the Mass used weekly by several hundred thousand Catholics, Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., offers here expert spiritual and practical help for priests, pastors and seminarians desiring to preach effectively. Why Preach draws from the author's rich understanding of the Word of God as the challenging, encouraging, and healing presence of Christ, as well as from his own experience as both a preacher and a teacher of homiletics. With an eye focused on the works and examples of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, Father Cameron illustrates that good preaching derives from and leads to an encounter with Christ, the Word of God made Flesh, who comes to us through the Scriptures. The objective of the book is to help preachers to think about preaching in a new, dynamic way. Its aim is to provide a fresh and helpful vision of preaching geared to deepening a preacher's appreciation of what preaching is, and the great spiritual impact that good preaching can have on its audience, so as to increase his desire and ability to preach well.

Chapters Include: The Preacher's World, The Preacher's Theme, The Preacher's Study, The Preacher's Technique, And The Preacher's Inner Life.

“God has appointed preaching in worship as one great means of accomplishing his ultimate goal in the world.” —John Piper John Piper makes a compelling claim in these pages about the purpose of preaching: it is intended not merely as an explanation of the text but also as a means of awakening worship by being worship in and of itself. Christian preaching is a God-appointed miracle aiming to awaken the supernatural seeing, savoring, and showing of the glory of Christ. Distilling over forty years of experience in preaching and teaching, Piper shows preachers how and what to communicate from God’s Word, so that God’s purpose on earth will advance through Biblesaturated, Christ-exalting, God-centered preaching—in other words, expository exultation.

By showing how you can preach the gospel to yourself each day, this book will help you savor the glories of God's love and experience the life-transforming power of the gospel in all areas of life.

Break the cycle of doubting yourself, take God at His word, and talk back with truth - a new message of freedom from bestselling coauthor of Wild and Free Hayley Morgan. We know Christ came to speak life, but then how come our inner critic keeps showing up and stealing the mic? If we’re honest, she’s a harsh one, saying things we’d never dream of saying to others: You’ll never measure up, you’ll fail again tomorrow, you just can’t get it right. It has been said that the eighteen inches from head to heart is the soul’s longest journey. Our head knows the good news is true, but our heart struggles to believe it, and it is in this gap that we battle to believe the promises of God. Hayley Morgan, coauthor of bestselling book Wild and Free, has wrestled with this tension her whole life. In Preach to Yourself, she tackles it head-on to discover how we can renew our minds to renew our lives. For every woman who struggles with repetitive, negative self-talk, this book will show you how to identify the toxic loops where you get stuck and replace them with the truth of God we can believe with our whole selves. This is not a “try harder” reprimand, it’s a “believe better” invitation: to take God at His word when He tells you who you are. Come along and learn a simple practice to break free from the lies holding you back, and step forward into the fullness of life God has planned.

If your heart is on fire with God’s love, your preaching will help listeners encounter Christ and deepen their spiritual lives. And that should be the ultimate goal of a homily. Remembering Why We Preach is a retreat that will help you revive your creative energy and spiritual focus. Karla Bellinger—executive director of the Institute for Homiletics at the University of Dallas—and Fr. Michael Connors, CSC—director of the John S. Marten Program in Homiletics and Liturgics at the University of Notre Dame—lead you through an eight-part process of spiritual renewal and skill development that will nourish and enrich you and your preaching for years to come. Whether you are recently ordained or have been preaching for decades, you will explore the spiritual, pastoral, and communal aspects of preaching, which lies at the heart of the Church’s work of making disciples. This book can be used as a personal or group retreat or in preaching courses It includes: reading materials for personal reflection; questions for journaling or peer-group discussions; practical exercises to enhance skills such as listening to your people, storytelling, homily writing, and diversifying your speaking styles; and support materials such as an outlines for a peer-group meeting, a sample retreat format, and forms for homily feedback and goal setting. Links to additional resources are available in each chapter.