Books by William H. Willimon

Will 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.Readings2.Theme title3.Introduction to the Readings4.Encountering the Text5.Proclaiming the Text6.Relating the Text

William H. Willimon's text about Biblical interpretation was originally published in 1991.

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, "e;Wow, I've just seen the Son of God,"e; but rather, "e;Who is this?"e;--from the IntroductionThe 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.

Will 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.Readings2.Theme title3.Introduction to the Readings4.Encountering the Text5.Proclaiming the Text6.Relating the Text

In seven chapters, 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. Chapter titles:Because Religion Is of the Heart Because the Bible Is Our Book Because Religion Is Practical Because Christians Are to Witness Because Christians Are to Grow Because Religion Is Not a Private Affair

Thank God It's Thursday is the prequel to bestselling author Will Willimon's highly successful, Thank God It's Friday. Following the book of John, Will Willimon focuses on the Jesus' teaching of his disciples prior to his own death but also before their own hour of decision. The climax of the Gospel is when Jesus pours out his life on the cross-surely an enactment and demonstration of the power of God's self-sacrificial love.So to sustain and fortify his followers for the difficulties ahead, Jesus prepares them by teaching and offering sacraments of self-giving,, through which they (and we) experience the grace and presence of the risen Lord. This book can equip Christians to face their hardships as they humbly serve with the promise of God's abiding presence already made good by his outpouring of sacrificial love. Written with the clarity, depth, and insight that are Will Willimon's trademark, this book offers afresh the challenge and grace of the message of the Resurrected One.

No figure in history has received more attention, and been less understood, than Jesus of Nazareth. Too much of what has been written recently portrays Jesus as a vaguely kind and friendly person whose message sometimes pleases but never challenges us, whose presence might comfort but never completes us. That Jesus, in other words, looks a lot like we do, just with better manners. Meeting that Jesus for the first time, the reader is tempted to ask "e;"e;Why all the fuss? What here is worth devoting my life to?"e;"e;Very little about that Jesus is worth it, says Will Willimon. Yet there is another Jesus, the mysterious preacher from Nazareth who continues to invite men and women to claim the true meaning of their lives by giving their lives away in service to God and others. This Jesus continues to fascinate and compel us, in spite of all the attempts to domesticate his message and put distance between us and the call to follow. In his radical teachings, his self-sacrificial death, and his liberating life beyond death, this Jesus teaches and shows us the true meaning and purpose of our own lives.

Ordained ministry, says Will Willimon, is a gift of God to the churchbut 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?Pastor: Revised Edition explores these and other central questions about the vocation of ordained ministry. It 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 concernspreaching the word, the care of souls, the sacramental life of congregationsremains 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.

Election is a strange word when used in theology. It brings to mind old debates about what God might or might not have done before the foundation of the world. But viewed apart from that historical baggage, the word election is about a central gospel idea: that in Jesus not only...

Without conforming to Jesus, our colony and our faith will fail.

Westminster John Knox Press 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's 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...

A paperback edition of the best-selling commentary on Acts by acclaimed preacher and scholar William H...

This brief introduction spells out the major beliefs of the United Methodist Church in a clear, nontechnical style. William Willimon, the beloved United Methodist author, preacher, teacher, and bishop, discusses the great theological themes that United Methodists share in common with all Christians as well as the particular accents and emphases...