A Will To Lead And The Grace To Follow

by Willimon, William H.; Langlands, Bryan K.

• ISBN13: 9781426715914
• ISBN10: 1426715919
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-01
• Publisher: Abingdon Pr

Summary

A collection of spiritually rich notes from one of today's premier preacher/theologians.

Author Biography

William H. Willimon is Presiding Bishop of the Birmingham Area of The United Methodist Church. Prior to his current position he served for twenty years as Professor of Christian Ministry and Dean of Duke University Chapel. He is the author of more than fifty books, of which over a million copies have been sold. His books include Pastor, Conversations with Barth on Preaching, Thank God It's Friday, and Why Jesus?, all published by Abindon Press. He was selected in a Baylor University survey as one of the Twelve Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World. Bryan K. Langlands is Interim Campus Minister at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. xiii
Advent and Christmas	p. 1
The Challenge of Advent	p. 1
In the Darkness, a Voice, a Light	p. 3
Christmas in the Empire	p. 6
Christmas Meditation	p. 8
To Easter	p. 11
No More of This! A Meditation for Holy Week	p. 11
The Violent Bear It Away	p. 13
While It Was Still Dark	p. 15
He Came Back…to Us!	p. 16
The Last to Believe in Easter	p. 19
Iterations of Resurrection	p. 21
The God Who Refused to Be Done with Us	p. 21
Thinking Resurrection	p. 23
Christ Got Up	p. 26
The Practical, Organizational Relevance of Resurrection	p. 27
The Work of the Church	p. 29
Effective Congregations	p. 29
Being Honest about Churches	p. 30
What's the Point of Worship?	p. 31
Who But the Church Will Tell Such a Truth?	p. 33
Courageous Discipleship	p. 35
My Name Is Will, and I Am Addicted	p. 35
Keeping Work in Its Place	p. 38
Traveling Light	p. 41
A Way When There Is No Way	p. 42
Theological Politics	p. 45
Mixing Religion and Politics	p. 45
Thinking Like a Christian	p. 51
Thinking Like a Christian 2	p. 53
Jesus the Immigrant	p. 54
Patriotic Thoughts	p. 55
A Prayer for George Alexander, Jr	p. 57
Women and Ministry	p. 59
Divine Wisdom among ôLittle Old Ladiesö	p. 59
The Reverend Grandma	p. 61
A Faith That Is Based on the Testimony of Women	p. 63
Evangelism, Consumerism, and the Emerging Generation	p. 65
Evangelism as the Invitation to Be Different	p. 65
Church of the Second Chance	p. 68
The Church and the Conversion of Emerging Adults	p. 69
Resisting the Clutches of Consumerism	p. 71
Reaching Young Adults	p. 73
Provoking Change	p. 77
Christ Means Change: Further Thoughts on Ministry of Conversion	p. 77
New Creation	p. 79
Conversion as Justification and Sanctification	p. 80
Neoteny	p. 81
Leading Change in the Church	p. 83
Beyond the Boundaries	p. 85
The Problem of Sin	p. 89
Sin	p. 89
Sin in Christian Ministry	p. 91
Despair as Sin	p. 94
Sinners	p. 96
Adventures in Pastoral Ministry	p. 99
Be Where You Are, or Learning to Love the Local	p. 99
Continuing the Journey	p. 101
Ministry to Those Not in Crisis	p. 103
The Point of Pastoral Ministry: Lay Ministry	p. 104
Ordination and New Clergy	p. 107
Advice for New Pastors	p. 107
Advice for New Pastors 2	p. 109
Gatekeepers into the Pastoral Ministry	p. 111
Gatekeepers into the Pastoral Ministry 2	p. 113
God Send Us Preachers	p. 116
Ministerial Character	p. 119
Weak Clergy, Watered-Down Christianity	p. 119
Sowing and Harvesting in Ministry: The Case of Moses	p. 120
Pastoral Humor as a Resource for Constancy in Ministry	p. 122
Pastoral Wisdom	p. 125
The Craft of Preaching	p. 127
Matthew's Meaning	p. 127
Preaching: Character and Credibility	p. 130
For God's Sake Say It	p. 132
On Not Reaching Our Culture through Our Preaching	p. 134
Apocalyptic Riff	p. 137
To: The Church Called Mainline	p. 137
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.