Face the prospect of preaching your next Easter sermon with joy and confidence, rather than worry about finding something new to say. Preachers dread the arrival of Easter, because these holy days bring the daunting task of finding new ways to tell the old stories everyone's heard so many times before. But what if it were only we preachers who are bored with these stories? asks Will Willimon. What if people keep showing up at Easter because the story of God's victory over death continues to hold power for them? What if the point were not to capitulate to the culture's insatiable appetite for novelty, but to tell the old stories faithfully, trusting in the power of the Spirit to make the text, the congregation, and yes, even the preacher come alive again in the preaching event?

Preaching and music are both regular elements of Christian worship across the theological spectrum. But they often don't interact or inform each other in meaningful ways. In this Dynamics of Christian Worship volume, theologian, pastor, and musician Noel A. Snyder considers how the church's preaching might be helpfully informed by musical theory. Just as a good musical composition employs technical elements like synchrony, repetition, and meter, the same should be said for good preaching that seeks to engage hearts and minds with the good news of Jesus Christ. By drawing upon music that lifts the soul, preachers might craft sermons that sing. The Dynamics of Christian Worship series draws from a wide range of worshiping contexts and denominational backgrounds to unpack the many dynamics of Christian worship—including prayer, reading the Bible, preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, music, visual art, architecture, and more—to deepen both the theology and practice of Christian worship for the life of the church.

Do you wonder how God is present in your ordinary, everyday life? Joe Pennel has a gift for recognizing God at work in life's events, both large and small. He tells how, when, and where he has encountered God's grace. His down-to-earth, insightful reflections make you aware of how God surrounds us with hope and love. Step away from the busyness of life, pull up a chair, and listen to this winsome, folksy storyteller weave his simple tales about being fully alive to the mystery and wonder all around us. Pennel's stories are organized by themes, which include: Belief Christian Living Fear Forgiveness Grace Life Lessons Love and more This book's message of God's love and hope is profound and encouraging, and it will inspire you.

“Dayspring, my dictionary tells me, is an archaic word meaning ‘dawn.’ But I have chosen Daysprings as the title for this collection of meditations for the several meanings in the ancient word and its components. I hope these brief reflections shed new light on old, familiar passages and illuminate the way through new ones. I also hope these pieces will prove to be springboards to new and creative meditation for readers, pastors, and preachers, and that they will find within these pieces an extra buoyancy for each day. Lastly, I hope these thoughts will flow like fresh, living waters through days of fast and feast, bringing refreshment. —from the Preface In his accompanying volume to Brightest and Best: A Companion to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts, Sam Portaro offers meditations for each of the weekdays for the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. Following the lectionary texts for each day, he focuses on the seasonal themes of incarnation, manifestation, suffering, redemption, and resurrection, showing how the eternal truths of the gospel shed light on the ordinary and extraordinary events of our lives. Solidly grounded in the prayers and scriptures of these seasonal liturgies, Portaro’s meditations bring fresh and powerful—sometimes pointed—insights for those who follow the daily readings and prayers of these days of the weeks in the church year as found in Lesser Feasts and Fasts.