Find nourishment for a creative mind, an open heart, a willing spirit.

  • Introduction (show | hide)

    A friend once returned from a summer writer's workshop wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Just Researching My Novel." Many people assume that pastors could wear a similar shirt everywhere they go: "Just Researching My Sermon." People suspect that preachers are forever on the hunt for new illustrations, anecdotes, and stories. And they're right! Some of us still write two new sermons per week. Without fresh input (a lot of it) we all discover that we're running out of "stuff" to say.

    Preachers read widely for lots of reasons, not the least of which is the sheer pleasure that reading a cracking good mystery novel or a well-researched biography can provide. But always there is the probability that the preacher's mind and heart can be expanded through such reading. Poignant novels penned by writers who are skilled at plumbing the depths of the brokenness of the human condition can give preachers glimpses into situations they may not know firsthand but that some to whom they preach know only too well. Biographies often display the multifaceted, sometimes contradictory facets, of human character, reminding the preacher that sermonic advice needs to fit real people who are, as often as not, odd mixtures of light, darkness, and those shadowy regions where the one leaves off and the other begins.

    Here the Center provides an ever-expanding list of books that fellow preachers deem "Must Read" volumes. Some of these books are professional tomes that overtly develop theological themes or that give instruction on the craft of preaching. Others listed here are works of fiction, biography, and history. But when, across the preaching life, preachers expose themselves to excellent books from a variety of literary types of writing, steady streams of input and insight will be created.

  • Prayers for Reading
  • Key Books on Preaching
  • Key Books of Sermons
  • Articles on Preaching
  • Recommended Biography, History & Memoir
  • "What I Have Discovered"