David O. Bales invites preachers of the word to work through the lectionary, allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire and enlighten the process along the way. Throughout the "Lectionary Preaching Workbook," Bales urges pastors to discover many ways to deliver God's word, reminding them that a genuine acknowledgment of congregational diversity insists upon thoughtfully delivered sermons.
Understanding that we learn in different ways and believing that God sets out to reach us in ways accommodated to our understanding, Bales has included a diverse set of sermon resources, incorporating styles such as narrative, exposition, imagistic, assertive, and apologetic. Creatively and intelligently, Bales explores critical themes throughout the scriptures including waiting, suffering, faithfulness, sovereignty, and patience, and he presents three decades of pastoral experience through poignant summaries, ideas, prayers, and stories. Above all else, he stresses a complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit -- a dependence that asks what God wants of us in this world and a dependence that remains patient long enough to hear God's response.
Including sermon resources for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, the "Lectionary Preaching Workbook "is valuable for sermon starters, individual Bible study, and adult study groups.
Each Sunday's material includes:
- Revised Common Lectionary texts for the day
- various themes and possible sermon titles from the scripture readings
- commentary on the day's readings and Psalm
- possible preaching approaches
- a pastoral prayer
- numerous illustrations to flesh out the message
David O. Bales was a Presbyterian pastor for 33 years. After retiring he taught Introduction to Biblical Greek at College of Idaho for two years. Formerly he taught Greek at Miles Community College, Miles City, Montana, as well as World Religions, Biblical Hebrew, and Ethics. He has researched, written, and edited for Stephen Ministries. His stories, sermons, and articles have appeared in "Preaching," "Pulpit Digest," "Lectionary Homiletics," "Preaching Great Texts," "Emphasis," "Feasting on the Gospels," and" StoryShare." He is author of "Gospel Subplots: Story Sermons of God's Grace," "To The Cross and Beyond," "Scenes of Glory: Subplots of God's Long Story," and is co-author of "Sermons on the Second Readings, Series II, Cycle A." Bales is a graduate of the University of Portland and San Francisco Theological Seminary.