Surviving the Sermon

Surviving the Sermon PDF Author: David J. Schlafer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781561010646
Category : Christian life.
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
An informative guide for those who wish to explore the role of the sermon in the ongoing life and teaching of a parish. Provides instructions for how to lead a sermon discussion group and how to listen to and discuss sermons in constructive ways.

Surviving the Sermon

Surviving the Sermon PDF Author: David J. Schlafer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781561010646
Category : Christian life.
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
An informative guide for those who wish to explore the role of the sermon in the ongoing life and teaching of a parish. Provides instructions for how to lead a sermon discussion group and how to listen to and discuss sermons in constructive ways.

Surviving a Dangerous Sermon

Surviving a Dangerous Sermon PDF Author: Frank A. Thomas
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1501896555
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Preachers increasingly see the need for to deliver sermons that are "dangerous" in a variety of ways, the way they challenge hearers' comfort levels and challenge established powers and hierachies. Thomas helps readers understand those dangers—especially the forces of power and hierarchy that are so intrinsic in our everyday lives and in society as a whole. He teaches how to anticipate and navigate those forces, to open opportunities for dangerous preaching, and to mitigate negative impact on congregants, the preacher, and the preacher-congregation relationships. Surviving a Dangerous Sermon is a logical follow-up to Thomas's previous book, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon.It equips preachers to say what must be said, in a way that it is heard, so that the sermon has a chance to do its work on human hearts, without negative consequences.

The Preaching Life

The Preaching Life PDF Author: Barbara Brown Taylor
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 156101074X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Like Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, Taylor emphasizes the holy dimensions of ordinary life and describes the essentials of faith with insight and humor, touching on the vocations, imagination, worship, sacraments, ministry and the Bible as they relate to the life of faith.

Making Sense of God

Making Sense of God PDF Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525954155
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon

How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon PDF Author: Frank A. Thomas
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1501856847
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Learn to use four characteristics of "preaching with moral imagination" to proclaim freedom for all. The author describes the four characteristics using examples like Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,Prathia Hall, and the Moral Monday Movement, along with musicians and other artists of today. Moral imagination helps the hearer to see what they cannot see, to hear what they cannot hear--to inhabit the lives of others, so that they can embody Christ and true freedom for those others. This book equips and empowers preachers to transcend their basic skills and techniques, so that their proclamation of the Word causes actual turnaround in the hearts and lives of their hearers, and in their communities. "Frank Thomas has written a passionate summons: amid the current destructive chaos of our society there is an urgent need for moral imagination. Such imagination is the antithesis of “diabolic” and “idolatrous” imagination that is all to the fore in our public discourse and practice. Thomas fleshes out “moral imagination” with close reflection on the practice of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Before he finishes Thomas shows how the urgency of “moral imagination” belongs peculiarly to the work of the preacher. This book is a welcome call for gospel-grounded courage and truth about the neighbor issued in a way that refuses the self-serving fakery that dominates our public life." --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary "Timely and prophetic, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon presents a homiletic essential for our churches today. Thomas insists that it is up to the preacher to recapture and reclaim the moral imagination of our nation so that the Gospel’s message of freedom is true for all people. With attention to specific figures whose witness models the qualities and characteristics of moral imagination, Thomas inspires the preacher toward powerful proclamation that both challenges and critiques any speech that subjugates or subordinates. How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon is must read for preachers to recover and reimagine the leadership role of the church for the sake of justice for all." --Karoline M. Lewis, Associate Professor of Biblical Preaching and the Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary; author of She: Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Women in Ministry. "In this lucid and compelling book, Frank Thomas plumbs the depths of American moral rhetoric for insights that will help preachers. How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon provides new and dramatic ways in which the moral imagination in a democratic society can be nurtured by visionary, empathic, wise, and artistic preachers."--John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School "Warning: Preachers, if you are comfortable with the status quo of white privilege, patriarchy, hetero-normativity, and classism, do not read this book. If you are comfortable with sermon series that reduce the gospel to self-help acronyms, don’t read this book. But if you have the courage to look honestly at our landscape and bring the moral imagination of the Christian tradition to bear on it, open these pages and your sermons may never be the same again. But then again neither will the church--or the world--be the same anymore, if enough of us follow Thomas’s advice." --O. Wesley Allen, Jr., Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching

Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching PDF Author: Frank A. Thomas
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1501818953
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Introduction to African American Preaching is an important, groundbreaking book. This book acknowledges African American preaching as an academic discipline, and invites all students and preachers into a scholarly, dynamic, and useful exploration of the topic. Author Frank Thomas opens with a “bus tour” study of African American preaching. He shows how African American preaching has gradually moved from an almost exclusively oral to an oral/written tradition. Readers will gain insight into the history of the study of the African American preaching tradition, and catch the author’s enthusiasm for it. Next Thomas traces the relationship between homiletics and rhetoric in Western preaching, demonstrating how African American preaching is inherently theological and rhetorical. He then explores the question, “what is black preaching?” Thomas introduces the reader to methods of “close reading” and “ideological criticism.” And then demonstrates how to use these methods, using a sermon by Gardner Calvin Taylor as his example. The next chapter considers the question, “what is excellence in black preaching?” The next chapter seeks to create bridges and dialogue within the field of homiletics, and in particular, the Euro-American homiletic tradition. The goal of this chapter is to clearly demonstrate connections between the African American preaching tradition and the field of homiletics. Thomas next turns to questions about the relevancy of the church to the Millennial generation. Specifically, how will the African American church remain relevant to this generation, which is so deeply concerned with social justice?

Rewiring Your Preaching

Rewiring Your Preaching PDF Author: Richard H. Cox
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 083086640X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
What preachers preach is not necessarily what hearers hear. Have you ever wondered why some hearers are affected by a sermon but not others? The issue may not necessarily be the content or delivery of the message. It may be how your hearers' brains process what you say. Modern neuroscience illuminates how our brains understand and hear sermons. Verbal stimuli can be accepted or rejected depending on the context of how they are received. The brain processes new information differently than information that reinforces already-held beliefs. To have long-term effect, new information must connect with previous memory. Psychologist, physician and preacher Richard Cox shows that better understanding of the brain can help preachers be more effective in their preaching. Intentional, purposeful preaching can actually produce new neural pathways that change how the brain thinks and how its owner acts. Our brains are intimately connected with how our bodies work, especially in how brain stimuli produce behavioral responses and how people experience comfort and healing in times of pain. God is at work in our brains to enable his people to hear him. Preach with the brain in mind, and help your hearers grow in mental, physical and spiritual health.

Surviving the Last Days

Surviving the Last Days PDF Author: Derek Prince Ministries-International
Publisher: Derek Prince Ministries
ISBN: 9781892283320
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description


Crushing

Crushing PDF Author: T. D. Jakes
Publisher: FaithWords
ISBN: 145559539X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Follow God's process for growth and find hope in life's darkest moments with Bishop T.D. Jakes's uplifting stories and advice from his own faith journey. In this insightful book, #1 New York Times bestselling author T.D. Jakes wrestles with age-old questions: Why do the righteous suffer? Where is God in all the injustice? Bishop Jakes tells crushing personal stories from his own journey -- the painful experience of learning his young teenage daughter was pregnant, the agony of watching his mother succumb to Alzheimer's, and the shock and helplessness he felt when his son had a heart attack. Bishop Jakes wants to show you how God uses difficult, crushing experiences to prepare you for unexpected blessings. If you are faithful through suffering, you will be surprised by God's joy, comforted by His peace, and fulfilled with His purpose. Crushing will inspire you to have hope, even in your most difficult moments. If you trust in God and lean on Him during setbacks, He will lead you through.

23 Minutes in Hell

23 Minutes in Hell PDF Author: Bill Wiese
Publisher: Charisma Media
ISBN: 1629994480
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
New York Times Best Seller and Over 1 million copies sold! Over 750 5-Star reviews Wiese’s visit to the devil’s lair lasted just twenty-three minutes, but he returned with vivid details etched in his memory, capturing the attention of national media, including the Christian Broadcasting Network, Daystar Television Network, Trinity Broadcasting Network, the Miracle Channel, Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural!, Sean Hannity’s America, Charisma News, and many others. Awaken to the realities of hell, the afterlife and the urgency to live for Christ in your short time here on earth.. Bill Wiese experienced something so horrifying it continues to captivate the world. He saw the searing flames of hell, felt total isolation, smelled the putrid and rotting stench, heard deafening screams of agony, and experienced terrorizing demons. Finally the strong hand of God lifted him out of the pit. This expanded anniversary edition includes more than 150 Bible verses referencing hell for further study. Also included is the new section, “Wrestling With the Big Questions” where Bill answers these and many others questions: Why do some people who have a near-death experience see a bright light? Will those who never heard about Jesus go to hell? Is hell eternal, or are those in hell simply annihilated?