Who doesn’t love a good story? Storytellers who excel at their craft have the ability to draw readers or listeners into the worlds they create, using characters and situations to entertain and enlighten us. Jesus, the Master Storyteller, often spoke using parables -- short stories that conveyed spiritual truths. By drawing his listeners into his stories, he unlocked their minds and hearts to hear the truth he was relating to them.
This compilation of stories for the entire church year, written by Peter Andrew Smith, follows in that same tradition. The stories within CSS Publishing’s latest Lectionary Stories for Preaching and Teaching are inspired by the source gospel passages and serve to highlight and illustrate the gospel Jesus taught through his words and life. They can serve as a companion when studying the scripture, as illustrations for sermons, and as devotional material for personal or group use. Smith offers thought-provoking contemplations on Cycle C lectionary passages that draw out the biblical theme by relating it to aspects of modern life we have all experienced.
This book may be used for:
- Preaching illustrations
- Sermon starters
- Stand-alone sermons
- Teaching aids
- Inspirational devotional reading
Some chapters included in this volume:
- When Tomorrow Comes
- Ready to Welcome
- The Sound of Good News
- God’s Grace Makes Anything Possible
- Welcoming God’s Love
Review of Peter Smith’s Lectionary Stories for Preaching and Teaching
A wonderful resource and a pleasure to read! By turns winsome, charming, and challenging, Peter Smith offers us insight into God’s wisdom as it travels to us through the power of story.
Readers will recognize themselves in the characters of these stories and their everyday circumstances. They live in the light of God’s grace and love, finding their way through life’s challenges with prayer and the gentle encouragement of friends, family, and neighbors.
These are stories that all ages will appreciate: understandable to children but with depth and wisdom for older generations as well. Smith presents the Christian life in a hope-filled and down-to-earth way.
This book is a great treasure, following a full cycle of the lectionary, beginning in Advent and advancing through the liturgical year. Preachers and readers of the lectionary will delight in how closely the themes of these stories relate to the Biblical texts we love so well.
Best of all, Smith’s writing reminds us of the goodness of following Jesus each day with trusting faith, and the difference this makes in our lives and the lives of those around us.
Robert C. Fennell,
Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology,
Atlantic School of Theology,
Halifax, Nova Scotia,
rfennell@astheology.ns.ca
Peter Andrew Smith lives in Antigonish, Nova Scotia with his wife, Meredith, daughter Hope, and dog Sophie. A graduate of the University of New Brunswick and the Atlantic School of Theology, he is an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada who has served congregations throughout Atlantic Canada and currently serves at St. James United Church and as a visiting chaplain at St. Francis Xavier University. Passionate about expressing the gospel through the spoken word, Smith is the author of All Things Are Ready (CSS) a book of lectionary based communion prayers and a number of stories and articles, which can be found listed at www.peterandrewsmith.com.
