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When St. Augustine was asked the purpose of a sermon, he thought back to what Cicero, the Roman statesman, said about oratory. The purpose of a sermon, St. Augustine said, is to teach, to delight and to persuade. The book of sermons you hold in your hand accomplishes all three. I should know. I read every word of these sermons. As I did so, I learned invaluable spiritual principles about the ways of God; I delighted in the anecdotes, stories and metaphors, and most importantly, I was persuaded to walk closer to Jesus Christ. It is not hyperbole to say that these sermons by Doug Hood, Greg Rapier and John "Skip" Randolph, represent some of the finest weekly preaching in the United States today. A big statement, But it is true! St. Augustine is smiling in the Kingdom of Heaven. Ask members of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach Florida what they like about their church and you will receive a myriad of answers. Some will comment on the sublime music or the outstanding Christian Education programs for children, youth, and adults. Others will describe the caring fellowship in the newly remodeled facility, while others will affirm the outreach to the local community. But, everyone mentions the preaching! The sermons at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach make the Bible come to life! Hundreds and hundreds of people come to each worship service anticipating that they will hear a "Word from the Lord" in these tumultuous times. This is not only the opinion of those who live in South Florida, but also those who worship on the internet from literally all over the world! I must tell you that it is quite unusual for three preachers of the quality of Doug, Greg, and Skip to preach regularly from the same pulpit. The fact that they are all associated with First Presbyterian of Delray Beach, Florida, is a testament to the strong leadership of the Senior Pastor, Doug Hood. Doug has purposefully surrounded himself with gifted preachers who bring out the best in him, even as he brings out the best in Greg and Skip. As a result of this excellence in preaching, First Presbyterian of Delray Beach is an enigma among mainline Protestant congregations in America: it is growing. It is growing in every measurable way: in worship attendance, on- line presence, membership, financial giving and volunteer time, but most importantly, in discipleship. People all over America, and the world, are experiencing the life changing presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the worship services and sermons! Is it any wonder that so many people want to be a part of this special church family in Delray Beach, even from around the world? 

May 25th, 2019 was the first day of my new life without my husband. I had been married to Nathaniel longer than I had been single. We married when I was 19 years old and we were looking forward to celebrating our 27th anniversary that upcoming July. However, Nathaniel was diagnosed with a brain tumor on April 5th, 2019 and was scheduled to have surgery on May 9th. It seemed to have happened all too quickly: Unfortunately, the surgery did not go as we had hoped and prayed, or according to the surgeon''s "best case scenario." The two weeks between the surgery date and the day Nathaniel went to be with the Lord were the most emotionally draining days of our lives. Thankfully, our adult children, Joyce, Theo, and Kristine, made sure that I was never alone at the hospital or hotel. Joyce, our oldest, ran interference for phone calls or any other necessary business. Our churches, friends, and families encouraged us through their prayers and  by providing snacks and money. Nathaniel''s specific request was to have no outside visitors while in the hospital: although it was extremely difficult, we complied. Instead, several friends came to the hospital just to sit with me downstairs in the waiting area. Text messages were a tangible reminder of just how enveloped we were in love and prayers. They were our strength and fortitude during such a traumatic time of uncertainty.In the immediate days after Nathaniel''s death,  we had so much love poured on us through visits, prayers, food, snacks, and financial support. Admittedly, I was just walking around on autopilot, still in shock. There were so many special people who dropped by with prayers, hugs, and concerns. Too many to name. I am glad for most of the visits, but some people haven''t learned the art of just being with another in their pain; not always having to say something to fill the silence, not giving clich├⌐s of how the loved one is in a better place now, and not giving opinions of how the bereaved should feel, act, or respond. 

Where do I begin to tell of the role "Joy" has played in every area of my life? Well let''s start at the beginning...I was born in San Antonio, Texas on an army base. I was a happy child, but by the age of 5 I had my first experience with fear and anxiety. At such a young age, I did not understand what alcoholism was or realize it had become a disease my Dad had succumbed to. All I knew was that he was gone and would not be returning any time soon. I could tell my mom was very sad and scared, but she showed me something I will never forget: Joy in the face of Adversity.

Dyton Owen has a straightforward and compelling way of communicating the essence of what a healthy, balanced church is all about. In four chapters he outlines the basic traits by which every church should be measured. This book is an outstanding resource for pastors, lay leaders, and church members who want their local church to be what God intends the church to be. I recommend it highly.- Dr. Clayton Oliphant, Senior Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Richardson, TX

The title of this book came to me in a miraculous way: I saw the book''s title and cover in a vision from God. That was the sixteenth miraculous experience of my life. I have since then had 30 more miraculous experiences important enough to be included in this book. Some people seem to get all the bad luck; the prophet Amos told of a man running away from a bear, who then encounters a lion, and escapes inside his house only to be bitten by a snake (Amos 5:19) Some few exceptionally lucky ones win the lottery more than once. I like to say that I am truly the luckiest man alive because I won the God lottery many times: What is the jackpot? Over the last 47 years God has blessed me with more than forty-seven miraculous spiritual experiences. Any miracle is amazing but some of the things I''ve experienced have been completely mind blowing. This book is a report on what I experienced and what I learned from my experiences. As you read along, I believe you will understand why I say that I am truly the luckiest man alive. The miraculous experiences I''ve experienced fall into only four categories: 1. Signs & wonders God performed to communicate a message2. Appearances of God - Father, Son & Holy Spirit 3. Hearing God speak to me or to others for me, and4. God using me to rescue people from injury, illness, or rape. 

If, as the Apostle Paul told the Athenians, God is not far from any one of us (Acts 17:27), then there must be circumstances, events, or occasions in which God''s nearness is especially discernable. The preacher''s task includes, at least in part, an effort to rummage through the cascading clutter of the time being to discover and uncover such moments. The greater part of the task is to interpret these moments from the perspective of God''s self-disclosure in Jesus of Nazareth. The best, and the hardest, part of the preacher''s task is to enable a congregation to embrace these moments with deep reverence and unspeakable joy. Fred Craddock was a master storyteller. He taught us that what makes a good story good is it''s power to awaken in us an appreciation for our own stories. A good story evokes a response of recognition and participation. "Something like that happened to me once. I remember that feeling. That story is my story too." So the sermons I have gathered here, and the stories and events they convey, are offered in the hope that they invite you to celebrate your own stories of occasions of the nearness, perhaps, of God.The circumstances, events and occasions woven into the fabric of these sermons, if not commonplace, are at least commonly accessible. They are ordinary moments more or less, moments broadly shared. There is a sermon delivered the Sunday before the Olympic Games began, and another for the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day. There is a sermon noting a successful day for the Hadron Collider; another for the Sunday after I painted my front door; yet another for the Sunday after a long-lost Renoir masterpiece was recovered.Of course there are also sermons occasioned by the familiar celebrations of the church year: Pentecost, All Saints Day, and Christmas Eve. Some of the sermons mark occasions during what the church calendar calls Ordinary Time: Sundays when the Lord''s Supper was served; and of course Mother''s Day. And in several of the sermons in the collection, the "occasion" is embedded in the Bible story itself: the day Jesus healed a blind man on the second try; the day estranged brothers met after twenty bitter years apart.I have gathered these particular sermons because they are each, in some way, tethered to a moment, event, or real-life circumstance. They cover a wide variety of themes. But if there is a common thread running through these pages, it is that God shows up in a lot of places where you wouldn''t ordinarily expect God to be, does a lot of things that you might not expect God to do, and loves a lot of people that you might not expect God to love.The Psalmist declared, "I was glad when they said to me, ''Let us go to the house of the Lord!" (Ps. 122:1) The Gospel is good news. "Aren''t you glad you''re here this morning?" I often asked. As you will see in the pages ahead, I wasn''t reluctant to ask folks to follow me into the tall grass or down a rabbit hole. Occasionally folks would greet me after worship confessing, "I didn''t know how you would ever dig yourself out of that hole." I knew what they were thinking. Their bewildered glances and puzzled expressions told me when to ask. "Aren''t you glad you''re here this morning?"The sermons assembled in this volume are presented essentially as they were first delivered. I have resisted the temptation to tidy them up. They are now what they were then: conversational, occasionally awkward, and seasoned with the incidental banter I enjoyed with a congregation whose names I knew, whose Sunday morning faces I cherished, and whose friendship I will ever treasure. 

Grief is done differently by every person. It is personal. My brother had been suffering for many years with cancers. Ignoring grief leads to numbers of coping problems. Grief comes because we love. We are not released from grief. Being rich or poor makes no difference. Being gifted and successful in life does not matter. All the 7.5 billion people living on earth today will know grief.David's death and all my losses in life have been tender times. No other human can understand. Our brothers or sisters each grieve differently. Spouses grieve in differing ways throughout the world upon the death of their partner.Because each loss is unique, we need to seek the help of a friend with gifts in grief counseling. When I went through my times of grieving, I sought someone who had had similar losses to help me through this dark journey. I could not handle recently losing my parents, losing my brother David, and losing feelings of worth, being insignificant, unloved, and unwanted by those with whom I wanted to continue sharing the joy of the Lord. One of the gifts David left was a thick book on the history of the McReynolds family. We are a part of everyone who lived with or without our genes. We will understand this in the Next Place.James E. McReynolds is a preacher, teacher, author, coach, and retreat leader who shares the joy of the Lord. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He lives in Elmwood, Nebraska.

vacation and part research in preparation for our retirement. When, at last, we purchased the village ruin we would someday call home, we took several "before" pictures. The early photos, like our vacations, had dual purposes. They documented the condition of the property and provided help in our planning. We used them to sketch the revisions, giving the builders the visual aide they needed to help us pull out of these old stones the inherent potential that we saw in them. But the unexpected, perhaps symbolic, purpose of our photographs was seen in the shadows. Our first pictures were marred often by deep shadows created by the angle and fierce brightness of the sun. Pictures of the front elevation of our village house were almost impossible. First, there was the narrowness of the street. We could not get a photo straight on, because we could not get the camera far enough away from the fa├ºade, even with our wide-angle lens. Secondly, there was the shadow cast by the sun. The sun, which highlighted the rustic beauty we wished to capture, also created deep shadows that obscured the architectural and structural detail. In time, we found photographic ways to overcome the shadows. But little did we know, that this was just the beginning of a way of life for us in France.This is not the book I had intended to write. A Bright Sun & Long Shadows is a picture of life in France unlike the many we read during our years of preparation before we made the decision to retire to the Midi. In retrospect, our armchair research, our on-site preparatory vacations, and our personal contacts over a ten-year period heightened our anticipation about the best that France had to offer. We learned too little about the shady side of life in the Midi. Originally, the book I intended was of tales from our first year of adjustment to the new life in France. We expected culture shock and the stress that accompanies major life-changes - even when we so eagerly sought these changes for ourselves. The book, as originally envisioned, would have been like too many others. It would have chronicled our adjustments to French life. It would have reflected its charming curiosities with a little irony, and a lot of "looking at the bright side of things". Yes, A Bright Sun & Long Shadows does reflect our experience of creating our new life in France. But, it has also grown beyond the initial intent; grown into a book that reflects how deeply the building of our new life has been affected by the dark side of French culture and the everyday ways of the people living around us

Parson’s Porch Books is delighted to present to you this series called Sermons Matter.We believe that many of the best writers are pastors who take the role of preacher seriously. Week in, and week out, they exegete scripture, research material, write and deliver sermons in the context of the life of their particular congregation in their given community.We further believe that sermons are extensions of Holy Scripture which need to be published beyond the manuscripts which are written for delivery each Sunday. Books serve as a vehicle for the sermon to continue to proclaim the Good News of the Morning to a broader audience.In this volume, Tom Evans gives us a concert of sermons which challenges the one who reads him preach to examine one’s heart, mind and soul.We celebrate the wonderful occasion of the preaching event in Christian worship when the Pastor speaks, the People listen and the Work of the Church proceeds.Take, Read, and Heed.

The essays in this small volume stand as time-bound responses to specific issues marking my professional engagement in church-related higher education. They represent perspectives and opinions that found their public advent in denominational publications and professional quarterlies, campus newspapers, city dailies, a literary journal for students new to writing, and a couple of collegiate chapels. Each bears a back-story about its origin that may or may not become evident in its reading. For those gaps I beg forgiveness.These days I write sermons and then preach them without the manuscripts that framed their original thoughts. That manuscript stack has grown tall and cumbersome and likely will soon head for the shredder. This varied compendium of focused reflections remains. In many instances motivation for writing arose from one of those unique but incessant interruptions chaplains and my colleagues in higher education ministry readily describe as the heart of ministry. So it is here.Deep gratitude to those stalwart individuals who simultaneously supported and tolerated my collegiality at LSU for eight years and SMU for twenty-nine. In many ways, this last half-century has provided a sometimes-wild but oh-so-wonderfully meaningful journey. Thank you Connie Steele and True Dianne Faust and Mary Ladd Bingham, Betty McHone and Judy Henneberger and Nancy Kasten, Jenny Veninga and Marcy Pounders and Edilson Volfe! Each in your own way has been an amazing colleague on this trek through life. Let me never fail to thank Bob Cooper, colleague chaplain for thirteen years before his retirement, for his ever forgiving liberality of spirit and joyful politics.

William “Will” Finnin and I have been colleagues for almost twenty years. Before that, we came of age in the 1960s, those extraordinary years of civil rights struggles, new visions of social justice, greater inclusivity in government and institutional religion, and uncovering silenced voices, of women, Black and Hispanic Americans, and countless others throughout history. I honor him for his contributions in all of these areas.       But my regard for Will goes beyond our shared generational goals. Rather, it is more about his belief that the redemption of the human spirit is always possible in our uncertain world.       Will is an artist, and his talents are amazing. He is a musician, a painter, author, counselor, and more. But I believe that it is his poetry that has continued to sustain him and others for a lifetime. His poetry has given expression to the flow of his life in all of its moments of pain, joy, survival, uncertainty, and courage. His words are testaments to his vision of transformation.       As a poet, Will understands this job, and he offers this volume from his serious yet playful heart, his life, and his vision of a joyfully transformative human spirit.

Rev. Dr. Ben Mathes is one of the most engaging, thrilling, and articulate storytellers around today.  His words bring you into the story, and the story and its characters come off the page and into your livingroom as you read. For over 35 years, Ben has travelled the world loving people in the name of Jesus. For the past 20 years that has been through Rivers of the World (ROW) www.row.org, the organization he founded. To read the pages of this book is to walk alongside Ben in the jungles of places like Venezuela, Peru, and the Congo. You’ll ride with him in the boat as he travels the Amazon River, the Mamano, the Oroso, and many others. His stories will take you to places you will likely never have the opportunity to visit (and to some places you’d never want to visit either) as he has reached out to provide loving care for God’s people for 4 decades. To know Ben is to love him. For 18 years, I’ve had the privilege of calling Ben my friend. We’ve walked together through war, disease, and famine that you will likely never experience beyond the pages of this book. We’ve experienced great joy as lives have been transformed and hope has been restored where it had been lost for centuries. We’ve laughed, cried, and prayed together, and God has used Ben Mathes to literally change the world.Reading this book will be like sitting in a pew while Ben shares stories of his life in a sermon, or at a table with him over tea as he captivates you with the unfolding of his life’s experiences. By the end of the journey you’ll be different, and you’ll likely want to make a greater difference as well. ENJOY!

H.H. Farmer was quoted as saying that the sermon is the word of God through the personality of the preacher. I think that is absolutely true. The preacher is without cause to speak without the pages of Holy Scripture. The pages of the Bible are brought home when they are communicated through our own lives and experiences. I know that in my own situation, my preaching ministry is shaped by my own life and by the shared experiences I have had with the congregations I have been blessed to serve over the past 38 plus years.Of course my preaching ministry started out under the leadership and nurture of my own Dad, The Rev. Charles F. J. Starzer, who was the ultimate Pastor/Preacher. He deeply loved the congregations he served over the course of his 44 years of ordained ministry. But he knew that being a Pastor/Preacher was probably the hardest job that one could imagine. He never encouraged me to follow in his footsteps and he gave me every opportunity to say that I wasn't called to it. In retrospect the opportunities he gave me early on to preach may very well have been designed to make me stop and think before getting in too deep! The first sermons I ever preached were in the summer before I started college. I spent two Sundays preaching to the congregation which gathered in the "chapel" of Fairview State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waymart Pennsylvania.