Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
Cycle A Gospel Sermons for Lent and Easter
David G. and Marian R. Plant

Two voices, fourteen sermons…

The lives of David and Marian Plant have been intertwined for 46 years, their mutual ministries, for even longer. Their voices were shaped by their ministry experiences that began together in shared, co-pastorate positions, and then matured into individual settled ministry positions and then again, moved into their own specialties of the last 20 years: Marian, in the teaching ministry and David in the interim and church revitalization ministry. Marian's voice is one practiced well from a traditional setting of pulpit with written text in hand. David's voice is one practiced in a relational style of informal conversation, often done without notes, and in back and forth dialogue with the gathered worshipers.

Their latest work, Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! provides fourteen cycle A gospel sermons for Lent/Easter. In these sermons you will see the mix of the lives of the Plants, committed to social justice, the important context of the role of the church as that which speaks for Christ, and the importance of the need for individuals to take up the challenge of living their faith more fully. There is no doubt that their mutual passions for addressing the ills befalling our culture and our world were foremost on their minds, and they could not but help influence one another's work by virtue of their lives lived in the practice of ministry and marriage. They offer these words to you, as colleagues in ministry, even if only a sentence is valuable to you.



Sermon titles included

But What of Lazarus? (John 11:1-45)
For the Glow of It (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)
Friday (John 18:1-19:42)
Learning to Walk in the Dark and Remembering the Dark is as Day to God (Matthew 26:14-- 27:66)
Nicodemus Came By Night (John 3:1-17)


Rev. Dr. Marian R. Plant is Professor of Religion and Ministry Studies and Schauffler Chair of Christian Education at Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio. Her first 25 years in ministry were as a pastor and educator serving small, mid-sized and large suburban churches in Ohio and Illinois. She continues to consult with judicatories and local churches to build thriving faith formation programs. Marian is the author of Faith Formation in Vital Congregations (Pilgrim Press, 2009) and "Beyond the Schooling Model: Faith Formation in the Educational Context" in Shaped by God: Twelve essentials for Nurturing Faith in Children, Youth, and Adults (R. Keeley, editor, Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2010).

Rev. David Plant is currently pastor of Memorial United Church of Christ, Toledo Ohio. He has been a specialist in church revitalization ministries, serving 18 churches as a transitional specialist and three as a settled pastor over 40 years of ministry. David has also done consultation work with over 80 churches at both the regional and local church level engaging churches in strategic revitalization coaching. He has worked as the Senior Jail Chaplain at DuPage County Jail in Illinois, and has served with numerous non-profit organizations in the Ohio, Illinois and Michigan communities.

Marian and David received their Bachelor of Arts from Defiance College, and their Master of Divinity degrees from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. Marian received her Doctor of Education from Northern Illinois University. They are life-long ministers in the United Church of Christ, have two grown sons, one terrific daughter-in-law, and a cat named Marie who still hasn't given up trying to train her humans.