Worship Resources & Commentaries

NEW Mark: (Belief Series.) William Placher. Hbk Westminster John Knox. (2010) Item Ref no. 252968.  $49.99 [3 in stock]

Placher offers an insightful theological perspective on what most scholars believe to be the earliest Gospel. The result is an accessibly written and theologically articulate commentary focusing on the questions Mark’s Gospel raises for us today. This is sure to be of immense value for all who want to hear the astonishing story Mark tells about “the good news of Jesus Christ” (Mark 1:1).

NEW Mark: (Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament series.) Mary Ann Beavis. 336pp. Item ref no .254607. Baker Academic.  $48.00. [1 in stock] 

“Beavis focuses on the story told by the evangelist and what it would have meant for its earliest hearers. She concentrates on the 'narrative flow' as she traces the way in which Mark's story develops as a story in five acts. Every reader is certain to find in it something new and illuminating.” Morna D. Hooker, University of Cambridge.

Modern critical biblical scholarship often points out how the church's teachings about Jesus have become encrusted with tradition so that it is hard to see what the New Testament really says about him. So how should the church present the story and identity of Jesus of Nazareth?

This is an introductory guide to the four New Testament Gospels as overlapping accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, each with their own distinctive emphases and concerns.

Part One deals first with the fact that there are four Gospels in the canon and looks at how the fourfold Gospel emerged. The literary relationships between the Gospels are dealt with next, followed by the composition of the Gospels.

Part Two looks at each Gospel, its structure, contents, style and narrative technique, its presentation of Jesus and its particular interests and themes.

Part Three, the main section of the book, takes six key events in the life of Jesus, most of which are found in all four Gospels, and examines the parallel versions.

The book ends with reflections on the fourfold Gospel and the singular Jesus, including a discussion of key issues relating to the 'historical Jesus'.

Join Jody Seymour as he leads us on a journey through the Gospel of Mark. Let the words of this first and oldest Gospel make a mark on you, as you discover in a fresh way its power to transform. Includes a guide for personal reflection or group discussion.

Material for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost and more. Liturgies, meditations, reflections, prayers, poems etc that have been tried and tested with local congregations, often at ecumenical worship events. They celebrate the One who came to earth to live a fully human life, who understands what it is to be human.

Focuses homiletically on the six principle festivals of the church year: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and Holy Trinity. Central to the complicated development of lectionaries over the centuries, these festivals have anchored the church year, primarily because they are specifically enunciated in biblical materials.

Susan Hedahl argues for the importance of viewing these festivals both as a unit and individually from a doctrinal perspective in light of the dynamic and theological expressions of God’s lively relationship with humanity. Exploring the possibilities in the biblical narratives that ground each festival, Hedahl helps the preacher create sermons that find joyous resonance in the liturgical, spiritual, ecumenical, theological, cultural, and educational activities of congregational life.

After an initial introduction to the festivals as a group, six chapters address each specific festival, describing the history, biblical texts, doctrines, cultural issues, and possibilities attendant on the festival. Throughout the book, Hedahl uses sermon excerpts by many preachers to illustrate strategies, choosing materials from a wide range of times, styles, and cultures.

Ann Lewin draws on her extensive experience as a retreat leader and writer to provide a feast of spiritual nourishment for the entire Christian year. Her minimalist style is intentional, allowing space for people to encounter God and respond in their own way. Her aim is to encourage readers to explore afresh the riches of God's love and to find fresh ways of expressing that love. Seasons of Grace is arranged in three parts: Advent to Candlemas, Lent to Pentecost, & Ordinary time, and offers seasonal liturgies, prayers for special occasions, imaginative ideas for worship, themed reflections, programme ideas for workshops and retreats and practical suggestions for enriching one's own spiritual life. Ann's characteristic poems and prayers throughout are a delight.

First published in 2005 under the title Words by the Way by Inspire (MPH), this new edition contains added new material.

An annual favourite, with 150 complete sermons for the coming year, with hymn suggestions. For each Sunday of the year there are two sermons based on the Principal and Second Service lectionaries, plus a section of sermons for special occasions - Mothering Sunday, Harvest, baptism, marriage, funerals - and for all major saints' days. In addition, it offers at-a-glance summaries of the Bible readings, seasonal introductions, a full colour liturgical calendar and hymns suggestions throughout the year.

The sermons are complete and ready to use, or can be used as a base for local adaptation. A boon for hard-pressed clergy and preachers everywhere.

A trusted planning resource for traditional and contemporary worship! Includes interactive CD!

The Abingdon Worship Annual 2012 offers fresh worship planning resources for pastors and worship leaders. Using a Theme Idea based on the lectionary readings, each week’s offering of prayers and litanies follows a basic pattern of Christian worship: Invitation and Gathering Proclamation and Response Thanksgiving and Communion Sending Forth. Alternative ideas for Praise Sentences and Contemporary Gathering Words are offered for those who work in contemporary worship settings.

Searchable CD Extras! Along with the entire print text in PDF format for ease of navigation and use, the AWA 2012 offers some these great extras:

• Text hyperlinked to the Table of Contents
• Song suggestions for each week, hyperlinked to the text
• Annotated Resource List with links to helpful worship planning Web sites (NEW!)
• Prayers and Liturgies for Baptisms

Now more than ever, The Abingdon Worship Annual is a must-have sourcebook offering countless opportunities for planning meaningful and insightful worship.

NEW  Abingdon Preaching Annual 2012. With CD-ROM. David Mosser ed. 425pp. Abingdon. $42.00. [Allow 4 weeks]

Busy ministers agree, this is one resource that’s dependable and indispensable! The 2012 edition provides a year’s worth of lectionary-based sermons for Sundays and special liturgical events; solid biblical commentary on lectionary texts; 19 topical sermon series on diverse themes; and more. Searchable CD-ROM has full text of the book, plus extra prayers, affirmations and classic sermons.

NEW  Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year B. Ronald Allen, Dale Andrews, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm eds. 544pp. Hbk. Westminster John Knox. $75.00. [1 in stock]

Want to add social justice themes to your preaching?

For each of the RCL days and 22 Holy Days for Justice there is a commentary that helps you integrate a variety of social justice concerns (including racial/ethnic issues, sexism, classism, ecology, and violence) into your preaching. Contributions by homileticians, pastors, biblical scholars, theologians, and social activists.

NEW  All-Age Lectionary Services Year B. 320pp. soft leather cover, Scripture Union. $59.99. [Allow 7-10 days]

60 all-age service outlines that make full use of the Bible readings in the Common Worship and Revised Common Lectionaries for Year B. Packed full of suggestions for Bible reading & exploration, prayers, games and music making. An invaluable tool for anyone who leads people of all-ages in church services.

All-sorts Worship Year B: Complete all-age services for every Sunday of Common Worship Year B. Claire Benton-Evans. 580pp large format. Kevin Mayhew. $87.50. [1 in stock]

You can’t turn a Eucharist into an all-age worship service just by throwing in a children’s sermon and an action song. All-sorts Worship contains complete services for every Sunday of Common Worship Year B, which are designed to include people of ‘all sorts and conditions of life,’ meaning that the whole congregation worships together and nobody is tidied away. Each service has a variety of multi-sensory activities ranging from puppets to puzzles to picnics. There is a checklist for leaders to ensure you have everything you need and many of the resources are contained on the accompanying CD-ROM. This is the ideal book for creative, fun, real all-age worship which creates a sense of belonging in your church.

This is a lively collection of 60 reflections on the readings for Year B. Imaginative and challenging, they carry the reader along in a free and easy style, and are full of memorable images. The author takes us from the homespun to the heavenly, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, in a series of fascinating meditations which will provide a valuable source of ideas and inspiration to enliven a service or sermon and which can also be dipped into at random or used in private prayer by individuals. The reflections have a fresh and contemporary feel and skilfully explore the readings in an illuminating and thought-provoking way.

Prayers for Lent and Holy Week (Just In Time Series.) David Mosser 112pp Abingdon (2010). Item ref. 245823. $28.00. [2 in stock]

Includes helpful prayers to use in public worship during Lent and Holy week. The collection includes invocations, opening prayers, prayers of confession, and pastoral prayers for the Sundays of Lent, Palm/Passion Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday services. Drawn from a variety of traditions, the prayers in this collection will aid any congregation as it worships throughout the journey of Lent.

Palm Sunday and Holy Week Services. (Just in Time Series). Robin Knowles Wallace. 84pp Abingdon (2006). Item ref. 189927. $23.00 [Allow 2-3 weeks]

Ready-to-use lectionary-based worship and preaching resources for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. Includes three options for Palm Sunday services including procession suggestions with special emphasis on participation by children. Also includes two suggested services for each lectionary year (A, B, and C), six services for Holy Thursday and three services for Good Friday. Includes multiple worship options for each lectionary year scripture. Gives suggested liturgies for each service including those related to Taize.

Easter Services, Sermons, and Prayers (Just in Time series), Kenneth Carter. Abingdon (2007). Item ref. 197927. $22.99. [Allow 4 weeks]

Creative liturgies, sermon helps, and prayers for Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday, and the 40 days of Easter.

Also provided are guidelines for pastors and ministry leaders as they prepare for the Easter season. He explains how to: establish and train an Easter hospitality team; extend hospitality to all who attend Easter services; help the congregation prepare for Easter as well as how to include children in the celebration.

Lenten Services. (Just in Time series) Lucy Lind Hogan. 94pp. Abingdon (2009). Item ref. 228043. $25.00. [2 arriving early February 2012]

Based on the Revised Common Lectionary and broadly ecumenical, this provides:

· Sitting with the Text: Scripture commentary for each of the three lectionary years; Worship and Preaching Themes

· Creating the Environment: ideas for decorating and preparing the worship space

· Shaping the Worship Service: prayers, liturgies, dramas, music suggestions

· Scripture Index; and more.

Beginning Ash Wednesday, Lenten Services aids the reader in planning and implementing transformative worship services throughout the Lenten journey.

A Heart for Creation: Worship Resources And Reflections On The Environment. Chris Polhill. 238pp. Wild Goose (2010). Item ref. 237294. $48.99. [1 in stock]

Every day we learn more about the environment and our interaction with it. We need to learn to live gently and more in harmony with God’s creation.

But how do we change? Religious traditions and mystics have used prayer and meditation to bring about change for centuries. Prayer is the powerhouse that inspires us and keeps us from burning out. Prayer helps us to transform our mindsets and to act from a more rooted place.

A Heart for Creation offers prayers, worship resources and reflections to help individuals and groups effect change. Includes a six-week challenge (suitable for Lent) to care more for God's Big Book - Creation.

From our love for God and love for creation we can grow in our care for the earth as exhorted in the Bible.

Undone by Easter: Keeping Preaching Fresh. William Willimon. 116pp Abingdon (2009). Item ref. 230882. $29.99. [2 in stock]

Face the prospect of preaching your next Easter sermon with joy and confidence, rather than worry about finding something new to say.

Preachers dread the arrival of Easter, because these holy days bring the daunting task of finding new ways to tell the old stories everyone's heard so many times before. But what if it were only we preachers who are bored with these stories? asks Willimon. What if people keep showing up at Easter because the story of God's victory over death continues to hold power for them? What if the point were not to capitulate to the culture's insatiable appetite for novelty, but to tell the old stories faithfully, trusting in the power of the Spirit to make the text, the congregation, and yes, even the preacher come alive again in the preaching event?

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the RCL – Year B Vol. 2 – Lent through Eastertide. David Bartlett & Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Hbk Westminster John Knox, US. (2008). Item ref. 214150. $100.00 [Allow 4-6 weeks]

For each lectionary reading there are four essays from top scholars, preachers, and writers on the theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical challenges of the text. Each volume also contains an index of biblical passages to enable preaching on  non-lectionary texts.

“Wonderfully organized and intelligently shaped.” Stanley Hauerwas.

Order these other Year B volumes:

·         Feasting on the Word: Preaching the RCL – Year B Vol. 3. Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1. Item ref. 223352.  $100.00. [Allow 4-6 weeks]

·         Feasting on the Word: Preaching the RCL – Year B Vol. 4. Season after Pentecost 2. Item ref. 223360. $100.00. [Allow 4-6 weeks]

Darkness Yielding: Liturgies, prayers and reflections for Christmas, Holy Week and Easter. Jim Cotter, Martyn Percy, Sylvia Sands, W H Vanstone, Rowan Williams. 336pp. Canterbury. (Revised ed. Sep. 2009). Item ref. 231930. $50.99 [1 in stock]

This new edition includes extra seasonal reflections from Rowan Williams and Martyn Percy, and a new liturgy for Maundy Thursday from Jim Cotter.

In addition it offers:

·         probing reflections by outstanding thinkers to inspire preaching and personal devotion

·         complete liturgies for:

·         Maundy Thursday foot washing and watch

·         a Good Friday devotional service

·         an Easter Eve vigil

·         a dawn celebration of the Resurrection

·         a set of meditations on the Stations of the Cross and the Seven Words from the Cross

·         seven Good Friday addresses by WH Vanstone.

Lent for the Whole Church Community. Susan Sayers. 88pp Kevin Mayhew (2004). Item ref. 229421. $30.99. [2 in stock]

Lent is the season of soul searching, wrestling with the problem of evil and our fractured relationship with God, tracing the human story through scripture, always aware of Jesus' power to heal and restore as we prepare for Easter. Is any of this suitable for the younger members of the Body of Christ? Or should we leave them out of all this? As full members of the Body, our youngest and oldest alike are an organic part of the love community which is church. We need to explore these areas of our common human experience together as family.

Throughout this book there are mixed-age-group activities and times of worship and reflection, which happen in the formal setting of the church congregation. There are others which keep the Lent pulse going on a daily basis, in homes and households, in family or friendship groups, or alone. There are also suggestions for opening the church up to the wider community during Lent. 

Now in eBook format   The Cross Walk. Anna Johnstone. 80pp. Johnstone² Photography, NZ (2006) eBook PDF. Item ref. 236783. $20.00 [10+ in stock]

Now released in eBook PDF format, this book of reflections and inspiring colour photos will be a valuable resource for worship, personal and group devotions during Lent and Easter.

The eBook is a 3.38mb PDF format file. (You need Adobe Acrobat Reader software version 8 or later installed on your computer to view this book.) We will email the PDF to you when you purchase a copy from us - no postage to pay. You can easily copy and paste the photos and text from the eBook into PowerPoint or other software for presentations in church or other gatherings.

“This is a volume to lift the spirit, to warm the heart. Anna’s reflective, dramatic monologues embrace the good news of God’s love in Jesus in a charming, conversational, grounded spirit. Be ready for astonishing, wonderful words. Be ready for photographs to fill you with wonder.” John Hunt, author of We Celebrating People.

Green Heart of the Snowdrop. Kate McIlhagga. 221pp. Wild Goose, UK (2005). Item ref. 166535. $50.00. [1 in stock]

McIlhagga was a minister and a member of the Iona Community until her death in 2002. This book includes poems and prayers of gathering and beginning; creation and self; Advent and Epiphany; Lent and mothering; Easter and Pentecost; pilgrimage and endings and blessings. 

The green heart on the underside of the tiny snowdrop flower, which so captured Kate’s imagination, symbolised for her an aspect of God’s purpose for our lives, as did so much else in her surroundings. Her passion for the integrity of creation and right relationship with the environment, in city or countryside, and with one another clearly provided inspiration for her writing. The wonderful inclusiveness of her work reflects an ecumenical outlook in the truest sense.