The local pastor’s go-to resource for weekly sermon planning. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2024 is lectionary-based and follows the calendar year (January - December). It includes special days like Maundy Thursday and Ash Wednesday, and indexes for scriptures and themes, to assist preachers with non-lectionary sermons. Each entry begins with a preacher-to-preacher prayer for preparation, then moves to the key feature: a commentary on one or more texts for the week, exploring themes and storylines, theological reflections, and thoughts about how the text and topic relate to our lives today. Also included are ideas for bringing the text to life--stories, illustrations, ideas for further reading, questions the preacher might pose to the congregation, and suggestions for a ‘call to action’ in response to the message. Finally, for the preacher’s ongoing enrichment, the Annual includes excerpts from new books on preaching and homiletics. This helpful resource is written by every-week preachers who aim to come alongside you, offering a reliable starting point for your sermonic planning, writing, and delivery.

The local pastor’s go-to resource for weekly sermon and worship planning. Each week’s entry consists of two pages, face-to-face. The pages include: 1. Preaching Themes -Fleshed out with brief, pithy nuggets of thought, idea jump-starters, or questions •These are designed to spur the preacher’s imagination and sermon development process •They will offer fresh, intriguing ideas •They will point the reader/preacher in a good direction; the reader takes it from there 2. Secondary or Parallel Themes -2 or 3 themes or streams of thought that are related to but separate from the primary theme offered. These might arise from different parts of the lectionary text. This may also include questions, or alternative ways of thinking about the primary theme. 3. Worship Helps •Gathering Prayer •Collect, Pastoral Prayer, Congregational Prayer, Responsive Reading, or some other liturgical element •Closing Prayer or Benediction Homiletical Topic Essays (3) These 700-word essays cover a variety of current and critical topics for the preacher. Each essay focuses on one particular topic. Topics could include the practice of preaching, sermon writing, current issues for the preacher, emerging trends in preaching, and emerging ideas or cultural trends that are important for the church and preacher. Essays are contributed by leading homileticians. Sermon Series Ideas This section will briefly outline and describe ideas for unique sermon series based on lectionary readings. Most if not all of these will come from non-NT texts, helping preachers to include a wider range of scripture in their preaching. (Many pastors preach primarily from NT passages almost exclusively.)

The local pastor's go-to resource for weekly sermon planning. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2023 is lectionary-based and follows the calendar year (January - December). It includes special days like Maundy Thursday and Ash Wednesday, and indexes for scriptures and themes, to assist preachers with non-lectionary sermons. Each entry begins with a preacher-to-preacher prayer for preparation, then moves to the key feature: a commentary on one or more texts for the week, exploring themes and storylines, theological reflections, and thoughts about how the text and topic relate to our lives today.Also included are ideas for bringing the text to life--stories, illustrations, ideas for further reading, questions the preacher might pose to the congregation, and suggestions for a ‘call to action’ in response to the message. Finally, for the preacher’s ongoing enrichment, the Annual includes excerpts from new books on preaching and homiletics. This helpful resource is written by every-week preachers whose aim is to come alongside you, offering a reliable starting point for your sermonic planning, writing, and delivery.

Preachers have long turned to the Abingdon Preaching Annual for help with the central task of their ministry: sermon preparation. Now, the 2006 edition of the Annual offers even more resources and aids to those who step into the pulpit Sunday after Sunday. Chief among these new features is the inclusion of sermon materials arranged by topic, in order to assist in planning and preparing sermon series. The reader will find sermon series on such topics as prayer, the life of Moses, the Holy Spirit, generous living, the book of Ephesians, and many more. Each series runs from three to six weeks, with a total of 13 series mapped out for the reader's use. The book contains:� Lectionary-based sermon materials � Pastoral prayers � Benedictions � Calls to worship � Scripture index � Services for special occasions such as weddings and funerals � Classical and contemporary affirmations of faith � Classical sermons for inspiration. Also included here for the first time is a CD-ROM, which in addition to the full text of the print edition, contains the following extra sermon helps: � Additional illustrations for use with the sermon series � Pre-sermon prayers � A bibliography of suggested reading for each sermon's Scripture text � More pastoral prayers � A "hot linked" lectionary table. The CD files are presented in PDF format (compatible with Adobe Reader 5.0) for easy searches, as well as seamless cutting and pasting into most word processing programs without loss of formatting. The Abingdon Preaching Annual has always been resource preachers can trust, and will continue to be--now more than ever.

Both experienced and novice preachers need a new approach for sermon development skill-building. A Sermon Workbook offers a unique and flexible resource that is instantly accessible and useful for anyone tasked with the proclamation of the Word. The workbook format can be used in a linear fashion, beginning to end. Or readers can pick and choose the chapters to tailor-fit their own needs. In either case, readers build skill upon skill, working through inventive and engaging exercises first developed and taught at Yale Divinity School. The book addresses the skills and arts that are essential for effective preaching in our multi-tasking, multi-ethnic, sound-bite society. It offers theological clarity about why we preach, and what matters most. The creative, collaborative, and charming authors present the principles as they do in their classroom: in two voices—one male and one female--with the two complementing and supporting one another.

Describes what it means to be anointed with the Spirit so that one can preach "to raise the dead." In The Holy Spirit and Preaching, James A. Forbes, Jr.--widely hailed as one of the nation's foremost preachers--offers four dynamic lectures originally delivered as the Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale University, the most prestigious annual preaching event in the United States. In each of the lectures, Forbes focuses on the Holy Spirit as it relates to preaching. He traces the Holy Spirit's activity in Jesus' ministry and looks at the impact of being anointed by the Holy Spirit. Forbes demonstrates how the Holy Spirit works with the pastor in the preparation and delivery of a sermon. The Holy Spirit and Preaching concludes by focusing on the need for anointed preaching, and the way anointed preaching happens today.

The local pastor’s go-to resource for weekly sermon planning. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2025 is Lectionary-based and follows the calendar year (January - December). It includes special days like Maundy Thursday and Ash Wednesday, and indexes for Scriptures and themes, to assist preachers with non-Lectionary sermons. Each entry begins with a preacher-to-preacher prayer for preparation, then moves to the key feature: a commentary on one or more texts for the week, exploring themes and storylines, theological reflections, and thoughts about how the text and topic relate to our lives today. Also included are ideas for bringing the text to life--stories, illustrations, ideas for further reading, questions the preacher might pose to the congregation, and suggestions for a ‘call to action’ in response to the message. Finally, for the preacher’s ongoing enrichment, the Annual includes excerpts from new books on preaching and homiletics. This helpful resource is written by every-week preachers who aim to come alongside you, offering a reliable starting point for your sermonic planning, writing, and delivery.