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First sent out May 2001
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Sermon and Worship
preparation resources on the Web
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You probably have
sermons and worship to prepare, and little time to do it. There is help on the
Web. Much of the 'help' out there is of dubious value, but this is the best that
I have found.
My advice: Don't try to preach someone else's sermon - just
use their ideas. Unlike in the academic world, plagiarism of sermons is
flattering.
1) COMMENTARIES & STUDY
AIDS
2) SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS
3) PICTURES FOR PREACHERS
4) SERMONS
READY-MADE
5) LECTIONARY SERMONS
6) LITURGY TEXTS
7) HYMNS and
WORSHIP SONGS
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1) COMMENTARIES & STUDY AIDS
CrossWalk Bible Dictionaries
Mainly older sources. All usefully linked together. Good for quick Bible
facts.
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/
CrossWalk
Bible Commentaries
Mainly older sources. Easy to use and search.
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/
Index
of full-text academic articles on the web, organised by Bible text
http://www.bsw.org/scripture/
Advent's
Catholic Encyclopaedia
Very good on biblical subjects and good links to
Early Church Fathers
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
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2) SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS
Pastor Holwick's Sermon
Illustrations
Thousands of illustrations ready to import into various types
of database
www.holwick.com/database.html
Holwick's
Links To The Best Free Sermon Illustrations
Links with star ratings and
useful descriptions.
http://tonga.globat.com/~holwick.com/links.html
SermonIllustrations.Com
A well organised site with superior search facilities. One which Holwick
missed!
http://www.sermonillustrations.com/si_search.htm
Reader's
Digest funny stories
Searchable by word or phrase. You can usually find
something to fit, and they are much funnier than most collections on Christian
sites (without being needlessly offensive). Holwick only points to the USA one,
but the Canadian and UK sites are much easier to search. And I think the jokes
are funnier (but I'm British).
Canada: http://www.readersdigest.ca/laugh_search.html
UK: http://www.readersdigest.co.uk/mjokes/webjokes?SearchView
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3) PICTURES FOR PREACHERS
Pictures are a valuable adjunct to preaching -
to illustrate archaeology, Bible stories, themes or sometimes just feelings. But
the pictures can be hard to find.
Goshen list of Clipart collections
A
huge list, sorted alphabetically, with no independent assessment.
http://directory.crosswalk.com/WebDirectory/browse.cgi?cat=cpr033
Bible
Picture Library
Online demo with free samples. OK, I admit, I run this. But
there is nothing like it for accompanying sermons.
http://www.ccart2.free-online.co.uk/HTML/ALL_DEMO.HTM
Ecole
Index of Images
Pictures available on the Web of almost every character in
the Bible and a very large number from Church History. Mainly from classical
art.
http://cedar.evansville.edu/~ecoleweb/images.html
eBibleTeacher
Illustrations for sermons.
Especially good for maps
http://www.ebibleteacher.com/images.html
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4) SERMONS READY-MADE
Yes, you can get your sermon ready grown, or just
look over someone else's shoulder for inspiration.
There are lots of sites
ready to sell you sermons (lots of ministers needing cash), but the best ones
are free.
Sermon Central
30,000
sermons, searchable and organised by topic and text
http://www.sermoncentral.com/sercentral/default.asp
Youthworkers
Exchange
Youth talks, stories, games, jokes etc. Remarkably good.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/4045/index.html
Visual
Sermons
I'm encouraging the use of pictures while preaching. You can use a
computer projector or an OHP. Few sermons at present, but the pictures are good.
http://www.VisualSermons.co.uk/
Historical
Sermons
Sermons by the great preachers of the past: Jonathan Edwards, Martin
Luther, John Wesley, George Whitefield, John Chrysostom, St. Augustine and
Spurgeon. A bit wordy nowadays, but inspiring.
http://www.gtu.edu/library/LibWorship.html#sermons
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5) LECTIONARY SERMONS
Commentaries on the Revised
Common Lectionary
Every week, short comments on the upcoming texts.
http://www.montreal.anglican.org/comment/
Sermons
for the Revised Common Lectionary
Sermons for each sunday, with hymn
suggestions and a 'sermon' for children.
http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermon.html
Worship
that Works - sermons for the Revised Common Lectionary
Collected from many
churches, several for most Sundays
http://www.dfms.org/worship-that-works/
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6) LITURGY
Jared's Liturgy Archive
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/9190/liturgy.htm
- Anglican, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Celtic, and other liturgies
- from
the Early Church Fathers to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer
Common Worship
(Anglican)
The text of the new C of E worship liturgy.
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/commonworship/
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7) HYMNS and WORSHIP SONGS
Cyber Hymnal
2700 lyrics,
scores, history, biographies of authors, hear tunes, search by title, topic,
meter, scripture etc
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/
Hymns
International
Hymns listed in English and other languages, with foreign
equivalents
http://www.gentle.org/Hymns/Default.htm
WorshipTogether.com
For the latest new songs, with sheet music.
http://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/default.asp
Song
Information Database Home Page
- very good for modern songs and published
albums
http://www.gentek.net/songs/
HymnSite.com
A large collection with very good search facilities. Even searches other
sites.
http://www.hymnsite.com/
Oremus Hymnal
Lyrics and midi files from 20 Anglican hymnals.
http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/index.html