In this new volume of sermons for the Common Lectionary (Revised), experienced preacher and pastor Bruce L. Taylor offers more theologically rich, sacramentally sensitive, and biblically centered proclamations for the Sundays and major feast days from Advent through Eastertide. As in his earlier sermon collections, readers will find in this first installment in a new series for the lectionary cycle a strong testimony to Christian unity and a deep appreciation of the heritage and contemporary relevance of the church as well as the importance of individual discipleship and commitment to prophetic servanthood. The collection includes examples of poignant story sermons which demonstrate how this style of preaching can be profound as well as engaging. Preachers, teachers of homiletics and practical theology, and devotional readers alike will find Love Walks on Wounded Feet to be a trustworthy and welcome companion for the Christian journey. Along the way, they will discover the treasures of the liturgical year and faithfully explore Matthew’s Gospel and the accompanying Scripture passages commended for use in Christian worship during Year A of the lectionary cycle.

Bruce Taylor's latest volume of sermons for the Common Lectionary (Revised) compiles traditional and story form proclamations for the Sundays and feast days from Advent through Eastertide in Year B of the three-year lectionary cycle. Theologically rich, sacramentally sensitive, and ecumenically minded, these biblically centered sermons articulate God's love for the whole creation, the profound implications of discipleship, and the necessity of Christian unity. Like its predecessors in Taylor's first and second journeys through the lectionary, What Happens Next? is intended for use by preachers, educators, seminary students, and devotional readers, who will all find it to be a welcome companion in penetrating the spiritual genius of the liturgical year and the usefulness of preaching from common texts. The book exemplifies how preaching from Mark's Gospel and the accompanying lectionary readings can shape interaction with the elements of the liturgy to encourage faithful Christian worship. The very uniqueness of Mark among the Gospels is elicited to prompt the whole church and each believer to respond to the question posed implicitly but insistently by the women's discovery of the empty tomb on Easter morning: What happens next?

To Be a Disciple is a fitting conclusion to Bruce Taylor's two published journeys through the Common Lectionary (Revised). Wise preaching encourages and promotes faithful discipleship. That is particularly true of this set of sermons for Sundays and feast days based on the readings for the second half of the lectionary cycle that features the Gospel of Luke. This collection highlights the unique emphases of Luke while interweaving the stories and theological witness of the lectionary's companion Old Testament and epistle readings. Clergy and laity alike will find this exploration of the intersection between ancient texts and contemporary challenges to be at once rich in theological insight, sacramentally oriented, and ecumenically sensitive, celebrating always Christ's winsome invitation and bold summons to Christian servanthood and the fitting, powerful, and dependable resources of the Holy Spirit. Jesus' call for the church's unity and God's pursuit of community are central convictions in Taylor's preaching and shape his understanding of the preacher's task and the disciple's mission. Like his other volumes, this collection includes representative story sermons based on the lectionary. It will be a valuable addition to libraries of ministers, seminarians, and all who aspire to faithful discipleship.

In his latest volume of sermons for the Common Lectionary (Revised), homilist Bruce Taylor has compiled more of his traditional and story form proclamations for the Sundays and feast days from Pentecost through Christ the King in Year B of the three-year lectionary cycle. Preached in various congregational settings, these sermons are theologically rich, sacramentally sensitive, biblically centered, and ecumenically minded, articulating God’s love for all of creation and emphasizing the profound implications of discipleship as well as the urgency of compassionate and prophetic Christian witness in both word and deed. Truth Be Told, like its predecessors in Taylor’s first and second journeys through the lectionary, will prove a welcome companion for preachers, educators, seminary students, and devotional readers, who will all find it to be an incisive and insightful exploration of the spiritual genius of the liturgical year and the unitive practice of preaching from common texts. The book exemplifies how preaching honestly and with integrity from Mark’s Gospel and the accompanying lectionary readings can shape interaction with the elements of the liturgy to promote faithful Christian worship and prompt responsible Christian living.

God at Work continues Bruce Taylor’s second series of sermons for the Common Lectionary (Revised), providing traditional and story forms of proclamation for the Sundays and feast days of the latter half of the liturgical year. As in his other collections published by Wipf and Stock, these theologically rich, sacramentally sensitive, and biblically centered offerings testify to God’s love of the whole creation, Christian unity, and the deep implications of discipleship. His sermons testify to the indispensable relevance of the church as divine instrument in bringing about the complete fullness of God’s purpose. Intended for use by preachers, educators, seminary students, and devotional readers, this book, like its predecessors, will be a welcome companion in probing the genius of the liturgical year and the usefulness of preaching from common texts as Matthew’s Gospel and the accompanying lectionary readings shape and are explored in Christian worship. Along the way, the scriptural testimony to God’s interaction with individuals and communities in and through events great and modest will help faithful readers detect the traces of God in their own lives and the workings of history.

The Scripture readings for Year C of the Common Lectionary (Revised) pair the Gospel of Luke, rich in its unique stories surrounding Jesus’ birth, Jesus’ care for the marginalized, and parables at once beloved and profound, with Old Testament and epistolary testimony to life-imparting faith in God’s promises. Bruce Taylor’s homiletical proclamation through the first half of Year C expounds the gospel’s summons to live today in hopeful reliance upon all that God has pledged to those who trust the Bible’s testimony to God’s faithfulness. Like his previous collections of sermons for the Sundays and feast days of the Christian year, the penultimate volume in this veteran preacher’s second journey through the lectionary is theologically rich, sacramentally oriented, and ecumenically sensitive, celebrating the church’s unity and community as witness to Christ’s living presence in the world. The sermons, including representative story sermons, speak as powerfully to clergy as to laity, to seminarians as to parishioners, evoking ardent commitment and lives characterized by gratitude, grace, hospitality, humility, and love. This book will be a welcome addition on the bookshelf or, better, on the desk and nightstand.

Daily Meditation readers abound; some, thankfully, endure. Rare are spiritually grounded and contemplative invitations that feature four generations of earnest family teachers, preachers, activists, journalists, and controversial prophets. In various life conditions, threatening and challenged by sickness and despair, herein are eight Niebuhrs’ faithful wrestlings. They bequeath bristling morsels and compelling insights, creatively compacted into more than four hundred entries and reference leads for further consideration. Thus, deeply influenced by the patriarch and matriarch, Gustav Sr. and Lydia, arise Reinhold’s steadfast reflections on grace-grounded justice and its principles; the caringly layered meanings of the love of neighbor and God from his brother, H. Richard; the dedication to render the faith intelligible to postmoderns held by his son, Richard Reinhold; and the decisive and insightful journalism by, in turn, his son, Gustav Jr., on Lincoln being duly lobbied for mercy to indigenous peoples. And that’s not all—the indispensable reminiscences of Reinhold’s educator sister, Hulda, and his wife, Ursula, as well as the unearthed grace-based Serenity Prayer of his daughter Elisabeth, corporately express rare gleanings of the Niebuhr clan’s virtual school of warm contemplative action.

Readers will take a journey through the Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), which describes God’s heart and His love.

The worship leader edition is a must-have for anyone involved in planning or leading worship through prayer, music, spoken words, visuals, and more. This simple, accessible volume is filled with theological grounding, practical suggestions, and words for worship. It includes quick introductions to topics like the Christian year and the use of technology in worship, as well as easy-to-use suggestions for preparing prayers. It also includes worship resources for the practices central to our faith and life—including baptism, communion, child blessing, and funerals. This worship leader edition is an essential guide for preparing worship that is intentionally crafted and theologically Anabaptist. This product includes supplemental resources to accompany the hymns from Voices Together, but does not include the hymns themselves. It is designed to use in tandem with the Voices Together Hymnal. Product specifications: Paperback 6″ W x 9″ H

This volume brings together for the first time the entire range of the shorter pieces of imaginative writing that she continued to produce throughout her life, together with her final account of the vision informing her life's work. It rescues Schreiner from the charge of having exhausted a slim talent in one semi autobiographical novel and provides a context in which to situate a woman writer whose idealist concerns recognised no simple geographical boundaries. To picture her as first and foremost a colonial writer or, alternatively, primarily as a member of the finde-siecle British avant garde, does little justice to the links she made in her own writing and to the complex situation she occupied, for Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner's life (1855-1920) straddled two centuries and two continents, while her travels between the land of her birth, South Africa, and her family's European homeland embroiled her in the political ferment of two wars: the Boer War (1899-1902) and the first World War (1914-1918).