View source for Creating the Message

The message we preach is usually the central part of an American Church service. Even in youth or children's services the message usually dominates. But if we're left to our own devices, we usually end up just teaching and preaching on our favorite topics and passages. 

It's hard to come up with series of messages that keep people's interest and yet are orthodox and biblical. And by the time someone preaches their 10th Advent they're usually running a bit dry. And even when we have a passage, good references can be extremely expensive and sometimes hard to understand.

That is why this page exists. Whether you're looking for some exegesis from another pastor to help, guidance in planning your messages around the Church year, or need a jump start to get your thinking going for another message, you're welcome here. We hope you find what you need and feel welcome to add what you have as well so others can be helped.

'''[[Commentary|Bible Commentary]]''' - There are excellent commentaries out there, but they also usually cost a tremendous amount of money. Well worth it if you are doing a sermon series on a book, but well beyond the price range of most of us if we're just preaching one message from that book. So we are creating an online commentary, created by the research of other pastors as they were writing their sermons. 

'''[[Lectionary]]''' - The Lectionary is a three year cycle of passages for each Sunday, with heavy emphasis on the church year and Christian holidays. Our lectionary lists any ideas that go with a holiday, as well as automatically linking to the commentary for each passage and any Message Idea that uses the passage for that week. However, it is not heavily populated yet.

'''[[Message Ideas]]''' - We recognize that much of the meaning from a message comes from you as the pastor listening to God, reading through scripture and coming up with a message that fits your context. But we also recognize that sometimes we just draw a blank. So we are gathering jump start ideas from pastors to help get those juices flowing. You can sort the messages by topic, passage, author, or nearly anything else.

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