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.

The go-to worship planning resource for all who plan weekly worship. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2025 is a practical, lectionary-based resource for leaders responsible for planning worship. This thoughtful sourcebook offers a weekly theme with meaningful prayers and fresh litanies following a traditional order of Christian worship: Invitation and Gathering Proclamation and Response Thanksgiving and Communion Sending ForthLiturgies and prayers are also included for special days, including New Year’s Day, Ascension Day, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Eve. The Annual includes helpful reminders for Christian-year planning—including liturgical colors—and a scripture index. The authors also provide in-depth guidance and practical ideas for this new age of worship, helping readers understand and weigh their options for worshiping in digital spaces and unconventional places. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2025 is a must-have sourcebook offering countless opportunities for planning meaningful and insightful worship.

A weekly worship planning book for United Methodist pastors and musicians – Refreshed! You’ll find new features like: - The full text from the two most-used Scripture translations, NRSVue and CEB - Blank writing space to record your plans, ideas, and questions - Recommendations for music geared for smaller choirs, solos, duets, and other ensembles - Many new hymn and song suggestions, as well as more song suggestions for modern or contemporary services - Suggested themes for each week, a helpful Theme Index, plus a Scripture Index - Weekly suggestions for using visuals in worship - Reproducible Worship Planning Sheets An all-in-one resource that helps both the music director and pastor plan the worship services for each Sunday and holy day of the year, The United Methodist Music and Worship Planner 2024-2025 is lectionary-based and places at your fingertips: - Weekly pages in a spiral-bound format that help you plan the entire worship year from September through August. - Eight or more suggested hymns for each service keyed to United Methodist worship resources: The United Methodist Hymnal, The Faith We Sing, Worship & Song, The United Methodist Book of Worship, and The Africana Hymnal. - Complete lectionary text of the Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel readings using the Common English Bible translation. - Reproducible worship planning forms. - Resources for holidays and special days. - Suggestions for prayers, solos, anthems, visuals, and much more. In addition, you will find more: - Emphasis on Methodist/Wesleyan theology, worship practices, and historical roots - Consistent Worship elements - Content for contemporary worship services - More innovative worship elements

A weekly worship planning book for pastors and musicians – Refreshed! We listened carefully to customer feedback and added many new features to make these resources more powerful, more useful, and easier to use for people in local churches of all sizes! You’ll find new features like: - The full text from the two most-used Scripture translations, NRSVue and CEB. - Blank writing space to record your plans, ideas, and questions. - Recommendations for music geared for smaller choirs, solos, duets, and other ensembles. - Many new hymn and song suggestions, as well as more song suggestions for modern or contemporary services. - Suggested themes for each week, a helpful Theme Index, plus a Scripture Index. - Weekly suggestions for using visuals in worship. - Reproducible Worship Planning Sheets - This beloved planning tool still begins on the first Sunday in September An all-in-one resource that helps both the music director and pastor plan the worship services for each Sunday and holy day of the church year, the 2024-2025 edition of Prepare! is lectionary-based and places everything at your fingertips: - Theme index! Includes themes like assurance, doubt, family, justice, prayer, temptation, and many more - Scripture Index - Calendar format that helps you plan the entire choir year, from September through August - Eight or more suggested hymns for each service keyed to 16 hymnals from at least seven different denominations, including Africana Hymnal, The Baptist Hymnal, Chalice Hymnal (Disciples of Christ), The Faith We Sing, Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal, The Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal), Hymns for the Family of God, Lutheran Book of Worship, The Presbyterian Hymnal, The New Century Hymnal (United Church of Christ), Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship, Songs for Praise and Worship Sing along Edition, The United Methodist Hymnal, Voices United, Worship & Song, and Worship III (Roman Catholic) - Complete lectionary text of the Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel readings, using the CEB and NRSVue translations In addition, you will find more: - Consistent Worship elements - Content for contemporary worship services - More innovative worship elements

In addition to being one of the world's leading interpreters of the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann is a skilled and beloved preacher. This collection of sermons demonstrates Brueggemann's fidelity to biblical texts, which come alive with meaning in our contemporary world. Throughout, Brueggemann reflects on his preaching. As Samuel Wells writes in his foreword, "Enjoy this volume from a master exegete, a master theologian, and a master preacher. They really are neat sermons. And they're for you."

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.

Both lectionary preachers and topical preachers will enjoy the best of both worlds with this second volume of sermon series ideas designed to frame consecutive weeks of lectionary texts into seasonal and short-term series. With contributors from seven denominations, this comprehensive resource offers new perspectives and fresh ideas for diving deep into biblical themes in ways that make congregants eager to come back for the next sermon and to invite others as well. Twenty-eight series plans include thematic overviews, sermon starters, and ideas for worship and outreach, honoring holy days and seasons and addressing typical patterns of church attendance to maximize visitor retention and member engagement. Contributors include: Amy K. Butler, Kyle E. Brooks, Carol Cavin-Dillon, Magrey R. deVega, Brian Erickson, Mihee Kim-Kort, Jasper Peters, Tuhina Verma Rasche, Bruce Reyes-Chow, Brandan J. Robertson, Martha K. Spong, and Anthony J. Tang.