Sermon Treks

The lectionary is a helpful homiletical tool. But there are times when lectionary preaching does not meet a congregation’s needs. Sermon Treks offers preachers and students an invigorating selection of new sermon-planning trails, for use as sermon series or for single sermons. The options presented here are practical and theologically responsible. Some are rooted in ancient forms of proclamation; others are new. All provide clear but creative guidance for the preacher, and a path that will lead to more effective sermons.

At first glance, preaching and advertising seem worlds apart from one another. One tries to proclaim love of God and neighbor; the other tries to sell you something that you may or may not need. Yet both must compete with other ways we receive and process information in an increasingly distracted world. While most of the time preaching simply tries to muddle through this situation, advertising knows that it must continually relearn how to reclaim its audience's attention–and keep it. Believing that preaching can benefit from advertising's laser focus on how to make its message stick, O. Wesley Allen, Jr. (a preaching professor) and Carrie La Ferle (a professor of advertising) have written this first-of-its-kind book on what preachers can learn from advertising. Examples of these lessons include: • Sharpening one's analysis to understand the congregation better • Encoding a message so that listeners can decode it for their individual lives • Understanding how the form of the sermon leads to greater or lesser effectiveness • Building the sermon around imagery and narrative

The real question for homiletics in our increasingly postmodern, post-Christian contexts is not how we are going to prevent preaching from dying, but how we are going to help it die a good death. Preaching was not made to live. At most, preaching is a witness, a sign, a crimson X marking a demolition site. The church has developed sophisticated technologies in modernity to give preaching the semblance of life, belying the truth: preaching was born under a death sentence. It was born to die. Only when preaching embraces its own death is it able to live. This book, then, is a bold homiletical manifesto against preaching in support of preaching, and beyond preaching to the entire worship experience. It troubles modern homiletical theologies in light of the trouble always already at work within preaching. Hereby, it supports a way of preaching--and teaching preaching--that moves counter to the "wisdom of this world." It aims to joins in God‘s self-revealed counterlogic of superabundance that saturates and thereby breaks open worldly systems of thought and practice. The purpose of this book is to expose preaching to its own death-to help it embrace its death-so that it can discover what eternal and abundant life might look and feels like.

The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2017 includes: The Primary Theme Fleshed out with brief, pithy nuggets of thought, idea jump-starters, or questions designed to spur the preacher’s imagination. Secondary or Parallel Themes Two or three themes or streams of thought that are related to but separate from the primary theme offered. Worship Helps Including Gathering Prayer, Collect, Pastoral Prayer, Congregational Prayer, Responsive Reading, and a Closing Prayer or Benediction. Topical Essays These 700 word essays cover a variety of current and critical topics for the preacher—contributed by leading homileticians. Full Sermons The full text from six to twelve sermons will be included. These sermons will highlight best practices, unique approaches, and fresh voices. Sermon Series Ideas This section will briefly outline and describe ideas for unique sermon series based on lectionary readings. "As a weekly preacher, I often find that preparing for preaching and crafting sermons are spiritual disciplines for me. It is a time in which I try to quiet all of the other 'to do' lists that occupy much of my ministry. This resource from Abingdon Press will now be a partner in those conversations, almost like a new personal devotional guide. I am grateful for additional voices who can help me make space for God’s Living Word." - Shannon J Kershner, Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, IL "The Abingdon Preaching Annual is a valuable resource for today’s preacher seeking to offer sermons with theological depth and thematic clarity. It seeks to activate the preacher’s own reflection and imagination in the challenging task of weekly preaching." - Alyce M. McKenzie, Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship Director, The Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence

This volume develops an approach to preaching that brings together two important forces. One is process theology and the other is a homiletic of conversation based on mutual critical correlation. In this approach, the preacher does not unilaterally announce the Word of God but is the leader of an exciting conversation involving the biblical text, process theology, the congregation, and voices from the larger world. The preacher seeks to help the congregation identify God’s invitations towards inclusive well-being and to imagine how to respond in ways that are consistent with those invitations, that promote inclusive well-being. The book begins with a crisp and clear summary of the worldview of process theology, highlighting its distinctive views on how God operates in the world through invitation and on the interrelationship of all things. The work then outlines an approach to biblical exegesis informed by process perspectives and sketches a method for bringing the biblical voice into dialogue with voices from tradition, contemporary theology, and the congregation and preacher. The volume suggests shaping the sermon to honor process theology and conversation. The volume concludes by noticing how perspectives from process and conversation help the preacher embody the sermon in engaging ways.

A New Model for Post-Apologetic Preaching in a Pluralistic World. The relationship between preaching and the public sphere has long been debated. Three different theological approaches tend to dominate the discussion. In different ways, these approaches take into account the movement from the modern mindset of the mid-to-late 20th century to the emerging postmodern worldview. In The Sermon without End, authors Allen & Allen thoughtfully offer a fourth option, one that in their view has not received much attention, but which offers a distinct and especially helpful perspective. It is a new and dynamic conversational model, reaching beyond the earlier work of Tillich and Tracy. In this homiletical framework, conversation takes place in multiple directions between the text or tradition and the world today. It is preaching in conversation, not just toward but with voices from the public sphere. The book provides a solid foundation for understanding this post-apologetic approach, but it importantly goes on to offer practical, real-pulpit guidance for implementation in a preaching ministry. It is a book for both scholars and practicing preachers who wish to reach people in meaningful and significant ways, and in ways that make sense for today. "This book deserves to be widely applauded. It provides a post-apologetic lens to illuminate the history of various modern homiletical discourses even as it envisions a postmodern one. ... I strongly recommend this book for homileticians, preachers, and lay people alike." - Duse Lee, Boston University School of Theology - Reviewed in Homiletic

John Wesley wrote this series of sermon commentaries to help people understand Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It took him over 15 years to complete this important work. Over time changes within the English language caused some of these writings to be very difficult for the average person to read and were really only suited for the most dedicated theologian. through careful and sensitive editing Claire Weakley, Jr. has brought these sermons back to life for every reader in the modern world to be able to enjoy and understand Wesley's insights and teachings regarding the Sermon on the Mount.

Saint Augustine once described the Sermon on the Mount as "the perfect measure of the Christian life." Taking his cue from Augustine, Frank Matera provides an exposition of the sermon for contemporary readers who wish to use the sermon as the standard by which they live their lives every day. Matera shows how the Sermon on the Mount summons believers to single-minded devotion and wholehearted service to God. He unfolds the historical and theological background to the sermon. He explores the meaning of the individual Beatitudes, which articulate Jesus' call for a more abundant righteousness, piety without hypocrisy, and the need to become "doers" of the Word. This lively and engaging commentary is an ideal resource for adult education and Bible study groups. It is also ideal for all who want to live their discipleship more fully.

John Stott's teaching on this timeless text shows how its value system, ethical standard, religious devotion and network of relationships clearly distinguish it from the nominal church and the secular world. Here Stott's The Message of the Sermon on the Mount is offered in brief readings suitable for daily use along with weekly studies.