Welcome to the new Pulpit Resource. For over three decades Pulpit Resource has helped preachers prepare to preach. Now, in partnership with Abingdon Press and MinistryMatters.com, I’m expecting that this homiletical weekly will be available with fresh and timely accessibility to a new generation of preachers.
Pulpit Resource doesn’t claim to be the sole resource needed for engaging, faithful, biblical preaching, but it does give you, the pastor who preaches, accessible, easy-to-use help on your way to a sermon.
No sermon is a solo production. Every preacher relies on inherited models, mentors in the preacher’s past, commentaries on biblical texts by people who have given their lives to such study, comments received from members of the congregation, last week’s news headlines, and all the other ways that a sermon is communal.
No Christian does anything on their own. We live through the witness of the Saints; preachers of the past inspire us and judge us. Scripture itself is a product of the community of faith. A host of now forgotten teachers taught us how to speak. Nobody is born a preacher. In the Christian faith, when someone has a genuinely new, individual thought about God, it is often called heresy.
Pulpit Resource is equivalent to sitting down with a trusted clergy friend over a cup of coffee and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?” Whenever I’ve been asked by new preachers, “How can I develop as a preacher?” My usual response is: get in a group of preachers. Meet regularly. Learn how to give and how to receive help. Sort through the advice of others and utilize helpful insights.” That’s Pulpit Resource.
I try to give you just what you need to begin the journey toward a sermon. I hope that Pulpit Resource stokes, funds, and fuels your imagination. Rarely do I give you, in the Proclamation section, a full sermon that can be preached verbatim. That leaves plenty of room to insert your own illustrations, to make connections that work within your congregational context, and to speak the word in your distinctive voice.
Sermons are occasional: God’s word spoken in a particular time and place, to a particular people. Only you can do that. All I try to do in Pulpit Resource is to give you my insights and ideas related to a specific biblical text, and then leave you free to allow the Holy Spirit to work within you and your particular congregational context.
I’m honored that you have invited me to be a partner in your preaching. I welcome your comments about Pulpit Resource, when my insights have been helpful and even when they were not. Occasionally shoot me some of your sermons, so I can enjoy learning about the ways you have adapted my material to your pastoral context (will@duke.edu).
Onward in the great adventure of preaching!
Will Willimon
