Description: The task of preparing and delivering a weekly homily can paralyze even the bravest seminarian. Sermons that Connect can help. A simple, nuts-and-bolts guide, it provides new preachers with a simple and effective model for powerful and compelling sermons. It then shows preachers how to flesh out sermons in a simple step-by-step process that is insightful and painless. As a beginner's guide, it provides in one sitting everything someone will need to create meaningful sermons for years to come. For those who have been preaching for a while, it will be equally instructive, helping preachers polish their sermons into even more effective works of art, providing invaluable suggestions for recognizing and articulating the essential elements of good sermons. About the Contributor(s): John R. Mabry, PhD, is Pastor at Grace North Church (Congregational) in Berkeley, California.

He teaches homiletics, theology, and spiritual direction at the Chaplaincy Institute for Arts and Interfaith Ministry (Berkeley) and serves as Assistant Director of the Master's Degree in Spiritual Guidance at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. He is the author of numerous books on spirituality and spiritual guidance, including Noticing the Divine: An Introduction to Interfaith Spiritual Guidance (2007).