William Willimon
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Dont Look Back
$18.99Add to cartHope and help for pastors and congregations who are asking, What now? And What’s next?
Some pastors and congregations have managed remarkable innovation, creation of new ministries, courageous pruning of old programs, and rediscovery of core Wesleyan convictions in recent years. Others have experienced a long, slow-motion, downward cycle of loss.
We might be tempted to ‘sit down’ wherever we are, looking back at all that’s happened, shaking our heads in disbelief. But it’s time to stand up, to move forward. Will Willimon shows what that could look like. He spent a year committed to asking questions and careful listening in conversations with clergy, organizational leaders, and parishioners across the U.S. What’s next for Methodist church folk?
As you read, join in the process of asking and listening. The honesty, wisdom, and inspiration you find here may point you in new directions. What do you think God is up to in the present moment? What should we stop doing and begin doing, responding to God’s call now? What are the biblical texts, stories from our past, and core Wesleyan convictions that might guide us from this point?
And are we at Good Friday or at Easter?
As Willimon writes in his Introduction, “Let’s have a decent burial for yesterday’s good intentions and then partner with the Holy Spirit in creating tomorrow’s church.” This is a book to read and reflect on with colleagues, congregants, and Methodist friends.
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Stories By Willimon
$20.99Add to cartWill Willimon is known and read throughout the world for his riveting, edgy, witty, and provocative stories or parables. His most beloved, memorable, and impactful stories are presented in this collection. The Stories of Will Willimon will expose readers to joy, agony, thankfulness, greed, trust, fear, healing, suffering, laughter, weeping, yearning, irony, hatred, and love. Readers may see themselves or their friends at times in these stories. Fellow storytellers are likely to retell these stories to friends, family, colleagues, and churches. Preachers will find illustrative materials to support their sermons and all readers will be inspired by the insights into the Christian faith provided.
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Will Willimons Lectionary Sermon Resource Year A Part 2
$26.99Add to cartWill Willimon is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten preachers in the world. For each Sunday of the Christian year, Will provides just what you need to begin the journey toward a sermon. This guide will stoke, fund, and fuel your imagination while leaving plenty of room to insert your own illustrations, make connections within your congregational context, and speak the Word in your distinctive voice. Guidance from Will Willimon is like sitting down with a trusted clergy friend and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?” Year A Part 2 is part of a six-volume set that includes years A, B, and C (2 volumes per year) in the Revised Common Lectionary. Part 1 includes the Pentecost through the end of the church year, Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday.
Each week of sermon resources includes:
1.Readings
2.Theme title
3.Introduction to the Readings
4.Encountering the Text
5.Proclaiming the Text
6.Relating the Text -
Will Willimons Lectionary Sermon Resource Year A Part 1
$26.99Add to cartWill Willimon is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten preachers in the world. For each Sunday of the Christian year, Will provides just what you need to begin the journey toward a sermon. This guide will stoke, fund, and fuel your imagination while leaving plenty of room to insert your own illustrations, make connections within your congregational context, and speak the Word in your distinctive voice. Guidance from Will Willimon is like sitting down with a trusted clergy friend and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?” Year A Part 1 is part of a six-volume set that includes years A, B, and C (2 volumes per year) in the Revised Common Lectionary. Part 1 includes the First Sunday in Advent through the Easter season.
Each week of sermon resources includes:
1.Readings
2.Theme title
3.Introduction to the Readings
4.Encountering the Text
5.Proclaiming the Text
6.Relating the Text -
Will Willimons Lectionary Sermon Resource Year C Part 2
$26.99Add to cartWill Willimon is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten preachers in the world. For each Sunday of the Christian year, Will provides just what you need to begin the journey toward a sermon. This guide will stoke, fund, and fuel your imagination while leaving plenty of room to insert your own illustrations, make connections within your congregational context, and speak the Word in your distinctive voice. Guidance from Will Willimon is like sitting down with a trusted clergy friend and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?” Year C Part 2 is part of a six-volume set that includes years A, B, and C (2 volumes per year) in the Revised Common Lectionary. Each week of sermon resources includes: 1. Readings 2. Theme title 3. Introduction to the Readings 4. Encountering the Text 5. Proclaiming the Text 6. Relating the Text
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Making Disciples Confirmands Journal
$14.99Add to cartMaking Disciples is a 13-session mentor-based confirmation program that pairs confirmands with adult mentors and guides them through a variety of learning experiences that will strengthen the student’s understanding of the faith while connecting him or her with the community of believers in a personal way. It can be used as a stand-alone program, or in conjunction with your current curriculum as a special experiential unit. This is a confirmation program that is more like a process and less like a reading assignment, more engaging and congruent with the nature of the Christian faith than existing programs. Using an “apprenticeship” approach to confirmation Will Willimon produced a series of learning experiences where adult mentors and confirmands are both teachers and learners at the same time. This time-tested approach has been extensively revised and updated for usage in today’s churches that take seriously Christ’s command to be engaged in disciple making. The Confirmand’s Journal is a place where an individual can write down highlights, memories, and details of their confirmation journey. This journal is a guided journal. Which means the confirmand will be given directions on things to do, and questions to reflect on, which will help them get started in their writing. Topics explore the basics of Christian faith: -God -Jesus -the Holy Spirit -worship -the Bible -gifts -ministry -baptism -spiritual life -death and resurrection -the church
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Making Disciples Mentor Guide
$17.99Add to cartMaking Disciples is a 13-session mentor-based confirmation program that pairs confirmands with adult mentors and guides them through a variety of learning experiences that will strengthen the student’s understanding of the faith while connecting him or her with the community of believers in a personal way. It can be used as a stand-alone program, or in conjunction with your current curriculum as a special experiential unit. This is a confirmation program that is more like a process and less like a reading assignment, more engaging and congruent with the nature of the Christian faith than existing programs. Using an “apprenticeship” approach to confirmation Will Willimon produced a series of learning experiences where adult mentors and confirmands are both teachers and learners at the same time. This time-tested approach has been extensively revised and updated for usage in today’s churches that take seriously Christ’s command to be engaged in disciple making. The bulk of the Mentor Guide is exactly the same as the Confirmand’s Journal. You are encouraged to work through the activities right along with the confirmands and to complete the activities and writing assignments just as he or she does. By working along with your confirmand you will demonstrate the need to keep learning and growing. Topics explore the basics of Christian faith: -God -Jesus -the Holy Spirit -worship -the Bible -gifts -ministry -baptism -spiritual life -death and resurrection -the church
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Making Disciples Coordinators Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$18.99Add to cartMaking Disciples is a 13-session mentor-based confirmation program that pairs confirmands with adult mentors and guides them through a variety of learning experiences that will strengthen the student’s understanding of the faith while connecting him or her with the community of believers in a personal way. It can be used as a stand-alone program, or in conjunction with your current curriculum as a special experiential unit. This is a confirmation program that is more like a process and less like a reading assignment, more engaging and congruent with the nature of the Christian faith than existing programs. Using an “apprenticeship” approach to confirmation Will Willimon produced a series of learning experiences where adult mentors and confirmands are both teachers and learners at the same time. This time-tested approach has been extensively revised and updated for usage in today’s churches that take seriously Christ’s command to be engaged in disciple making. The Confirmand’s Journal is a place where an individual can write down highlights, memories, and details of their confirmation journey. This journal is a guided journal. Which means the confirmand will be given directions on things to do, and questions to reflect on, which will help them get started in their writing. Topics explore the basics of Christian faith: -God -Jesus -the Holy Spirit -worship -the Bible -gifts -ministry -baptism -spiritual life -death and resurrection -the church
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Will Willimons Lectionary Sermon Resource Year B Part 2
$26.99Add to cartWill Willimon is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten preachers in the world. For each Sunday of the Christian year, Will provides just what you need to begin the journey toward a sermon. This guide will stoke, fund, and fuel your imagination while leaving plenty of room to insert your own illustrations, make connections within your congregational context, and speak the Word in your distinctive voice. Guidance from Will Willimon is like sitting down with a trusted clergy friend and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?” Year B, Part 2 is part of a six-volume set which includes years A, B, and C (2 volumes per year) in the Revised Common Lectionary. The sermon resources include: 1. Readings 2. Theme title 3. Introduction to the Readings 4. Encountering the Text 5. Proclaiming the Text 6. Relating the Text
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Will Willimons Lectionary Sermon Resource Year B Part 1
$26.99Add to cartWill Willimon is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten preachers in the world. For each Sunday of the Christian year, Will provides just what you need to begin the journey toward a sermon. This guide will stoke, fund, and fuel your imagination while leaving plenty of room to insert your own illustrations, make connections within your congregational context, and speak the Word in your distinctive voice. Guidance from Will Willimon is like sitting down with a trusted clergy friend and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?”
Year B, Part 1 is part of a six-volume set that includes years A, B, and C (2 volumes per year) in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Each week of sermon resources includes:
1. Readings
2. Theme title
3. Introduction to the Readings
4. Encountering the Text
5. Proclaiming the Text
6. Relating the Text -
Fear Of The Other Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$10.99Add to cartThis five-week DVD/video based small group study (DVD and Leader Guide) companion to the book, Fear of the Other: No Fear in Love invites readers to consider the Gospel command to love (and not merely tolerate) those considered to be “Other” or outside mainstream Christian culture. Rooted in the faith of Israel and the Christian story and vision, Willimon – in an onscreen conversation with Delia Catalina Ramirez, brings a non-technical, Wesleyan perspective to bear on what may be the hardest thing for people of faith to do: keeping and loving the Other as Other. Emphasizing the biblical mandate to receive Others in their particularity and difference as gifts and mysteries bearing the grace of God, this study also offers a strong critique of the privileged who all too often rush to language of reconciliation and evade the huge inequalities surrounding conversations and practices dealing with xenophobia and injustice. Rooted in the New Testament understanding of Gentile outsiders grafted into the covenant community, this study invites readers to an on-the ground faith that hearkens to a soliciting and revealing God – the God who comes to us again and again through so-called outsiders, strangers, immigrants, and those without status. The 5 video conversations between Will Willimon and Delia Ramirez focus on each of the five chapters of Fear of the Other: Session 1: Saved by the Other Session 2: The Other, My Enemy Session 3: Learning to Fear Like Christians Session 4: Loving the Other in Church Session 5: Jesus, the Other
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Who Lynched Willie Earle
$19.99Add to cartPastors and leaders long to speak an effective biblical word into the contemporary social crisis of racial violence and black pain. They need a no-nonsense strategy rooted in actual ecclesial life, illuminated in this fine book by a trustworthy guide, Will Willimon, who uses the true story of pastor Hawley Lynn’s March of 1947 sermon, “Who Lynched Willie Earle?” as an opportunity to respond to the last lynching in Greenville, South Carolina and its implications for a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel today. By hearing black pain, naming white complicity, critiquing American exceptionalism/civil religion, inviting/challenging the church to respond, and attending to the voices of African American pastors and leaders, this book helps pastors of white, mainline Protestant churches preach effectively in situations of racial violence and dis-ease.
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Pastor : The Theology And Practice Of Ordained Ministry (Revised)
$34.99Add to cartOrdained ministry, says Willimon, is a gift of God to the church–but that doesn’t mean that it is easy. Always a difficult vocation, changes in society and the church in recent years have made the ordained life all the more complex and challenging. Is the pastor primarily a preacher, a professional caregiver, an administrator? Given the call of all Christians to be ministers to the world, what is the distinctive ministry of the ordained? When does one’s ministry take on the character of prophet, and when does it become that of priest? What are the special ethical obligations and disciplines of the ordained? In this book, Willimon explores these and other central questions about the vocation of ordained ministry. He begins with a discussion of who pastors are, asking about the theological underpinnings of ordained ministry, and then moves on to what pastors do, looking at the distinctive roles the pastor must fulfill. The book also draws on great teachers of the Christian tradition to demonstrate that, while much about Christian ministry has changed, its core concerns–preaching the word, the care of souls, the sacramental life of congregations–remains the same. Ordained ministry is a vocation to which we are called, not a profession that we choose. To answer that call is to open oneself to heartache and sometimes hardship; yet, given the one who calls, it is to make oneself available to deep and profound joy as well.
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Holy Spirit
$15.99Add to cartMuch more than a personal experience, the Holy Spirit is who God is and what God does as the Trinity, whether we feel it or not. It is the birthday of the church as created through the Spirit, giving the church the task of pointing the world to Jesus. This book will help people recognize what an extraordinary thing has happened to them through baptism and their inclusion in the Body of Christ through the Spirit But to do this the authors will challenge some of the presumptions surrounding discussions about the Spirit in terms of how the work of the Spirit is understood as “inspirational.” In other words, this book will help people recover a sense of why the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and how that reality makes possible our inclusion in the Body of Christ in a manner that challenges some of the individualistic and subjectivist accounts of the Spirit’s work.
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Resident Aliens : A Provocative Christian Assessment Of Culture And Ministr (Ann
$22.99Add to cartA vision of the Church as a colony, a holy people, a family standing for sharply focused values in a devalued world.Only when the Church enacts its scandalous Jesus-centered tradition, will it truly be the Body of Christ and transform the world. Twenty-five years after its first publishing, Resident Aliens remains a prophetic vision of how the Church can regain its vitality, battle its malaise, reclaim its capacity to nourish souls, and stand firmly against the illusions, pretensions, and eroding values of today’s world.
Resident Aliens discusses the nature of the church and its relationship to surrounding culture. It argues that churches should focus on developing Christian life and community rather than attempting to reform secular culture. Hauerwas and Willimon reject the idea that America is a Christian nation, instead Christians should see themselves as “residents aliens” in a foreign land. Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon maintain that, instead of attempting to transform government, the role of Christians is to live lives which model the love of Christ. Rather than trying to convince others to change their ethics, Christians should model a new set of ethics which are grounded in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
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Incarnation : The Surprising Overlap Of Heaven And Earth
$16.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. God Revealing God
2. Now, A Word From God
3. Help Is On The Way
4. Life In The Light Of Incarnation
NotesAdditional Info
Jesus defies simplistic, effortless, undemanding explications. To be sure, Jesus often communicated his truth in simple, homely, direct ways, but his truth was anything but apparent and undemanding in the living. Common people heard Jesus gladly, not all, but enough to keep the government nervous, only to find that the simple truth Jesus taught, the life he lived, and the death he died complicated their settled and secure ideas about reality. The gospels are full of folk who confidently knew what was what–until they met Jesus. Jesus provoked an intellectual crisis in just about everybody. Their response was not, “Wow, I’ve just seen the Son of God,” but rather, “Who is this?”–from the Introduction. The church uses the concept of “Incarnation,” (from the Latin word for “in the flesh”) to help us understand that Jesus Christ is both divine and human. The Incarnation is the grand crescendo of our reflection upon the mystery that Christ is the full revelation of God; not only one who talks about God but the one who speaks for and acts as God, one who is God. -
Acts : A Bible Commentary For Teaching And Preaching
$32.00Add to cartWilliam Willimon combines the latest findings in Lukan scholarship with the pastoral, educational, and theological concerns of the local church to provide a new interpretation of Acts. He bases his commentary on the idea that the purpose of Acts was not to make Christianity acceptable to the Roman state but rather to preserve the integrity of the church against the onslaught of classical culture.
Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.
This is the 2010 paperback edition. Originally published in hardback in the United States by Westminster John Knox Press in 1988.
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This We Believe Leaders Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$9.99Add to cartLeader guide for eight-week small group study to help you deepen your understanding of United Methodist core beliefs.
This We Believe: The Core of Wesleyan Faith and Practice by William H. Willimon For John Wesley, the Bible is the joyfully consistent testimony of God’s never-ending grace and ever-seeking love. Likewise, studying the Bible is more than merely knowing what Scripture says; it is also about living every day as a child of God. Beginning with the Core Terms found in The Wesley Study Bible, author Bishop William H. Willimon systematically lays out key Wesleyan tenets of faith so that you will have a fresh way to hear God’s voice, share in God’s grace, and become more like Jesus Christ.
Let this book be your trusted companion to The Wesley Study Bible as you grow to love God with a warmed heart and serve God with active hands.
Order the separate book for each participant in a small group #9781426706899
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This We Believe (Student/Study Guide)
$18.99Add to cartFor John Wesley, the Bible is the joyfully consistent testimony of God’s never-ending grace and ever-seeking love. Likewise, studying the Bible is more than merely knowing what Scripture says; it is also about living every day as a child of God.
Beginning with the Core Terms found in The Wesley Study Bible, Bishop Willimon systematically lays out key Wesleyan tenets of faith so that you will have a fresh way to hear God’s voice, share in God’s grace, and become more like Jesus Christ.
This book can be used as an eight-week, small-group study. A Leader Guide is also available.
Let this book be your trusted companion to The Wesley Study Bible as you grow to love God with a warmed heart and serve God with active hands.
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Early Preaching Of Karl Barth
$28.00Add to cartWJK is proud to present this special collection of fourteen of Karl Barth’s World War I-era sermons- the only English language collection of Barth sermons preached between 1917 and 1920 when he was a parish pastor in Safenwil, Switzerland. This volume offers a fascinating glimpse into Barth’s interpretation of Scripture during a time of great historical significance. Renowned preacher William H. Willimon provides expert commentary on the theological and homiletical substance of each selection and points to the many ways in which Barth’s early preaching can enrich the work of preachers today.
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Guide To Preaching And Leading Worship
$24.00Add to cartOne of the world’s most admired preachers here offers his practical and sage advice for some of the most basic tasks of ministry: preparing, delivering, and evaluating sermons; planning, leading, and evaluating worship services; offering public prayers; and celebrating baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In addition, Willimon provides creative suggestions for involving laity in worship.
Ideal for beginning ministers and seasoned veterans alike, A Guide to Preaching and Leading Worship will assuredly become a standard must-have for mainline Protestant clergy.
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Who Will Be Saved
$20.99Add to cartWhat does it mean to say that salvation is God’s business, and God’s alone?
“Who will be saved?” is almost always a question about them, and rarely about us. Thinking itself wrapped securely in the everlasting arms, the church has spent much of its history speculating on whether God will allow anyone else to join the party.
But if we truly believe that salvation is God’s business, and God’s alone, then perhaps we should stop asking, “Who will be saved?” and ask instead, “How is God calling me to participate in the redemption of the world?” Rejecting the idea that God chooses some and not others, drawing on his Wesleyan heritage, and deepening his longstanding theological conversation with Karl Barth, Willimon reflects as a pastor and a theologian on God’s intention that all would someday return from the far country into the loving embrace of the One who created them.
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United Methodist Beliefs
$18.00Add to cartThis brief introduction to the UMC spells out the major beliefs of the Church in a clear, nontechnical style. Discusses the great theological themes that United Methodists share in common with all Christians as well as the particular accents and emphases that characterize United Methodist understandings of Christian doctrines. Opens the door for further study.
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Thank God Its Friday
$18.99Add to cartChrist’s seven last words from the cross have long been a source of reflection, challenge, and soul-searching. These simple phrases contain the full range of human emotions and divine self-revelation – grief, compassion, despair, forgiveness, physical need, the promise of redemption. Written with the clarity, depth, and insight that are Willimon’s trademark, this book offers readers a chance to encounter, in compelling new ways, the words that contain the core of the gospel.
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Conversations With Barth On Preaching
$30.99Add to cartReaders of William H. Willimon’s many books have long discovered the influence of Karl Barth, one of the most significant theologians of the twentieth century. In this new book, Willimon explores that relationship explicitly by engaging Barth’s work on the pitfalls and problems, glories and grandeur of preaching the Word of God. This Swiss theologian, says the author, expressed one of the highest theologies of preaching of any of the great theologians of the church. Yet too much of Garth’s understanding of preaching lies buried in other sources. Willimon brings this material to light, introducing readers to Barth’s thought on both the meaning and the practice of preaching.
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Proclamation And Theology
$14.99Add to cartThis first volume in the Abingdon Press series Horizons in Theology addresses the major concerns and questions for preaching as it intersects with theology. William H. Willimon, recognized as one of today’s master interpreters of the theology and practice of preaching, explains why, in the words of the Second Helvetic Confession, “The preaching of the word of God is the Word of God.” Drawing from classical theology and practical experience, he provides a cogent, powerful explanation of what it means to live the preaching life.
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Pastors Guide To Personal Spiritual Formation
$14.99Add to cartIn The Pastor’s Guide To Personal Spiritual Formation, experienced church leaders, who understand firsthand the importance of maintaining one’s own spiritual formation, challenge and inspire you to reach new and deeper levels of spiritual vitality and growth, and in doing so profoundly influence the quality and depth of your ministry. William Willimon, M. Robert Mulholland Jr., Steve Harper, Bill Hybels, and other well-known church leaders discuss topics such as:
*Spiritual Direction
*Prayer and Meditation
*The Sabbath
*Grace
*Making Choices
*Spiriitual Reading, and more!
How can you continue to cultivate a maturing, intimate relationship with Christ in the midst of leading your own congregation? Spiritual guidance and growth for pastors. -
Pastors Guide To Effective Preaching
$14.99Add to cart12 Chapters
Additional Info
Pastors are judged by their preaching. How are you measuring up?
Every week, those 30 minutes you spend in front of the congregation impact their decisions about whether or not to attend your church.
Preaching changes lives when Christians answer the call to do what
God asks of them.
In The Pastors Guide To Effective Preaching, Billy Graham William Willimon, Eugene Peterson, and other well known church leaders will teach you to connect with the congregation through your preaching. Beyond the “how to’s” of preaching, The Pastors Guide provides a foundation for embodying God’s grace and holiness as a means of communicating His message.
You’ll learn to
Keep your congregation engaged in what you’re saying.
Plan an extended preaching schedule.
Relate the gospel to our secular and humanistic society
Understand the role of preaching in your overall ministry
Preach with authority and communicate the gospel with simplicity
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Pastor : A Reader For Ordained Ministry
$31.99Add to cartBrings together the finest wisdom from 20 centuries of church history focusing on the core concerns of preaching the Word, caring for souls, and celebrating the sacraments via the roles of priest, preacher, teacher, evangelist, counselor, prophet, and leader. Excerpts from major lights of the past.
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Pastors Guide To Effective Ministry
$14.99Add to cart12 Chapters
Additional Info
Systematic theology. . . Philosophy of religion. . . Old Testament exegesis. Just about every seminary-trained pastor is educated in these areas. But how about nurturing the congregation? Don’t forget administration of the church and pastoral counseling. And on a more personal note, they must keep their family life in shape, care for their own physical and emotional health, manage their finances, and maintain a pure life and witness.Larry Burkett, Dallas Willard, William Willimon, and Dale Galloway, along with other well-known church leaders, provide solid advice for the personal and professional development of pastors. This book will be a desktop companion for pastors who are in the trenches and facing the day-to-day challenges of ministry.
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Survival Guide For Christians On Campus
$15.95Add to cart1. How Do I Know If I’m A Christian
2. How Can I Read The Bible And Get Something Out Of It?
3. Do I Have To Go To Church To Be A Good Christian?
4. Am I A Sinner?
5. How Do I Know What’s Right?
6. Am I Supposed To Try To Convert People To Christianity?
7. How Can I Listen To A Sermon And Get Something Out Of It?
8. What’s The Point Of Worship?
9. And What About Sex?
10. What About Pentecostalism?Additional Info
The contemporary college campus is filled with spiritual surprises, daily dilemmas, and difficult questions. Can the Christian faith survive the scrutiny of the new knowledge and ideas that bombard students on the college campus? Tony Campolo and Will Willimon – college professors and seasoned authors and speakers – insist that the Christian faith is not threatened by tough questions. They maintain that some of the greatest minds the human race has produced have put hard questions to Jesus and come away more firm in their faith and more convinced of its truth than ever before. Whether you are committed Christian or one who is still exploring the Christian faith, this book will provide sound answers to difficult questions. Open this book and find the help and heart to walk into the jungle of campus life and walk out more than a conqueror. -
Calling And Character
$23.99Add to cartOne of the casualties in our culture wars over shifting definitions of ethical behavior ahs been the ability to think clearly about the relation of one’s character to the performance of one’s job. This has been especially the case in recent debates over clergy misconduct, where much has been said on what point they should do so. Yet, as William H. Willimon points out, a far more fundamental set of questions goes unasked. When, at ordination, clergy commit themselves to live an exemplary Christian life,what particular perspective and habits must they develop if this commitment is to survive the strain of a lifetime of ministry? Waht are the expectations they must have regarding the consequences of failure to live up to their commitments? Willimon lays out a clear and compelling picture of the pastorial life, one that will inform both those embarking on ordained ministry and those who have been in it for many years. He lays our specific habits such as study, collegiality, and humor as the day-to-day means of following the difficult and dangerous, yet deeply rewarding, calling of pastor.
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Downsizing The USA A Print On Demand Title
$31.99Add to cartIn this trenchant analysis of American society, Thomas H. Naylor and William H. Willimon take an unabashed stance against the belief that “bigger is better” and warn that size and technological complexity are not risk free. There is a grave price to be paid for our uncritical affirmation of bigness, universal solutions to problems, dehumanizing uniformity, and standardized mass production.
Naylor and Willimon argue that our government, our cities, our corporations, our schools, our churches, our military, and our social welfare system are all too big, too powerful, too intrusive, too insular, and too unresponsive to the needs of individual citizens and small local communities. They propose specific strategies for decentralizing and downsizing virtually every major institution in America, including America itself. The authors audaciously call for the peaceful dissolution of the United States through secession and provide a thoughtful game plan for achieving this controversial objective.
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Lord Teach Us (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartThe Lord’s Prayer – the prayer taught by Jesus himself that unites Christians throughout the world – is dissected phrase by phrase in this very readable book by two eminent theologians. From “Our Father” to “Amen,” Willimon and Hauerwas apply this ancient prayer to the whole of the Christian experience so that we come to see our life in Christian community as reflection of these very words.
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Preaching To Strangers
$25.00Add to cartThese twelve sermons by renowned author and pastor William Willimon, with responses by theologian Stanley Hauerwas, demonstrate the fruitfulness and difficulty of the interaction between practicing pastors and theologian. In this intriguing book, the authors suggest an old and very new way to think about theological work within the church.
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Peculiar Speech A Print On Demand Title
$18.99Add to cartWillimon writes with passion about the dynamics and implications of preaching to a congregation, to those who, having been called, are either baptized or yet to be baptized. The preacher, says Willimon, needs to address the people in a congregation with “peculiar speech”, letting the biblical text call them to live a transformed life in keeping with their baptism.
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Shaped By The Bible
$15.99Add to cartShaped by the Bible offers sound information about the ways congregations are formed and reformed by the biblical message and the living Word. William Willimondiscusses the ways Scripture can form us, reform us, and challenge us, as well as the ways we hide from, close our ears to, and evade the Bible’s claims on us.
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Why I Am A United Methodist
$11.99Add to cartPopular author, speaker,and unviersity professor William Willimon examines United Methodism and the ways it has made and continues to make a difference in his life. In an inspiring and enlightening way, he writes of his pride in being part of a church that has grown from one man’s experience to a worldwide movement covering the globe with its message. A learning guide for groups and individuals is included.
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Acts : A Bible Commentary For Teaching And Preaching
$45.00Add to cartWilliam Willimon combines the latest findings in Lukan scholarship with the pastoral, educational, and theological concerns of the local church to provide a new interpretation of Acts. He bases his commentary on the idea that the purpose of Acts was not to make Christianity acceptable to the Roman state but rather to preserve the integrity of the church against the onslaught of classical culture.
Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.
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Worship As Pastoral Care
$28.99Add to cartDemonstrates how worship and pastoral care can be blended to sustain and enrich each other.
Using insights gained from pastoral care and pastoral psychology, William H. Willimon explores what happens to people when they become involved in Christian worship. True pastoral care, he shows, cannot take place apart from an active worshiping community of faith.
Worship as Pastoral Care sensitizes pastors to the many ways Christian worship and pastoral care methods can be blended to enrich and support one another. It encourages pastors to broaden their understanding of corporate worship and to become aware of the importance of their role as priests.
To illustrate his concepts, Dr. Willimon examines four familiar acts of worship: the funeral, the wedding, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. The psychological dimensions are discussed and suggestions are given on ways pastors can nurture and sustain their congregations through these services.
