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...

Demonstrates 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...

Christ's seven last words from the cross have long been a source of reflection, challenge, and soul-searching. These simple statements contain the full range of human emotions and divine self-revelation: grief, compassion, despair, forgiveness, physical need, the promise of redemption. In many ways they embody the core of the gospel. In this brief book one of today's most noted church persons and preachers confronts the reader with the seven last word's claim on her or his life. Written with the clarity, depth, and insight that are Will Willimon's trademark, this book offers afresh the...

This 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.

Willimon 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. Within the book appear three powerful baptismal sermons-"The Invitation," "Divine divestment," and "The New Family."

The Intrusive Word follows William H. Willimon's widely acclaimed Peculiar Speech: Preaching to the Baptized. Whereas the latter pondered the implications of speaking week after week to the believer, this volume considers what it means to preach to those who have not yet heard the gospel in its life-changing, disruptive fullness.

Convinced that America's institutions of higher learning now face a crisis - that they are not meeting the educational needs of their students, that faculty members can do better - William H. Willimon and Thomas H. Naylor here propose bold changes in the nation's undergraduate educational system. By looking at academic life from the students' point of view - the text is filled with real-life situations, reflections from students, and poignant illustrations - The Abandoned Generation evaluates American colleges and universities on the basis of the quality of the lives that they are now...

In this trenchant analysis of American society, the authors take an unabashed stance against the belief that 'bigger is better' and warn that size and technological complexity are not risk free.

With the recognition of the sweeping changes now taking place in North American society comes the realization that Protestant mainline churches no longer enjoy the privileged status they once did. In this forward-looking contribution to pastoral theology, three leading ministers discuss the state of church life today, explore the particular opportunities that our new world offers the church, and provide a clear picture of what a new, "postliberal" church can look like in practice.

Speaking directly to pastors and church leaders who find the liberal/conservative polarity tired and unhelpful,...

This collection of vividly illustrative sermons by a leading contemporary Episcopalian preacher eloquently heralds the Christian call to faith in the face of modern challenges.
Widely known for their up-to-the-minute relevance to modern life, the sermons of Fleming Rutledge are always out on the edge, challenging the boundaries of contemporary thought and experience. No issue is too threatening, no event too shocking, no question too impertinent to be addressed. Following Karl Barth's dictum that sermons should be written with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, Rutledge...