An Online Sermon Resource for the Emerging Church
As the pastor of a small emerging church, I often lamented the lack of practical resources out there for people like me. When preparing sermons and worship services I would often have to scour the internet for ideas that fit with our approach to faith and our practice of church. As many other emergent types can probably attest, as part of this movement you often feel caught in a sort of no-man’s land. Not quite evangelical, not quite mainline; not conservative, but not entirely liberal either; open to liturgy and historic traditions, but not bound to them. Our church also faced the additional complication that we didn’t do traditional sermons so much as interactive, guided discussions.
The free resources made available at this site are the fruits of our experimentation and explorations together as a church in this emerging context. I wanted to make available online all of the sermons, orders of service, and powerpoint slides from our church, Via Christus, over the two and half years we were in existence. My hope is that they will serve as an inspiration and tool for your own ministry. Please feel free to borrow from them or adapt them however you wish. But also keep in mind that these sermons are adapted to the needs of our particular community, and you will likely have to reshape them to fit your own unique context.
Most of these sermons revolve around our church’s study of Luke-Acts, though seasonal themes and a few other random topics are also included. You can search them by scripture passage, or by topic. Only a few passages in Luke were omitted, and unfortunately we only got through the first half of Acts before our church disbanded.
Credit needs to be given to the many resources I gleaned from in preparing these sermons. I tried to read a wide diversity of perspectives on the text, consulting commentaries from both evangelical and liberal, as well as emerging church sources. Among the most significant scripture commentaries were:
Luke for Everyone by NT Wright
Luke (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries) by Leon Morris
The Voice of Luke: Not Even Sandals by Brian McLaren
Jewish New Testament Commentary by David Stern
Acts for Everyone by NT Wright
Acts (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries) by I. Howard Marshall
The Voice of Acts: The Dust Off Their Feet by Chris Seay & Brian McLaren
The Acts of the Apostles (Narrative Commentaries) by James Dunn
The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary by Ben Witherington III
and of course the immensely helpful SarahLaughed.net lectionary blog by Sarah Dylan Breuer.
I also used several liturgical resources in putting together the rest of the service. These include:
The Complete Book of Christian Prayer
Worship Feast: 50 Complete Multisensory Services for Youth
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer
BodyPrayer: The Posture of Intimacy with God by Doug Pagitt & Kathryn Prill
Alternative Worship by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay
Within these notes I have also tried to link to lyrics of the worship songs whenever possible. For the music itself I would recommand utilizing iTunes to download copies of the songs.
My hope and prayer is that these resources would be a blessing to you and your ministry.
-Mike Clawson
P.S. – You can visit my personal blog at http://emergingpensees.com/
