Christmas
Showing 251–283 of 283 results
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Its News To Me Messages Of Hope For Those Who Havent Heard Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartAll too often, many people find traditional worship dull and the sermons they hear impractical for living in today’s world. Yet Linda McCoy is convinced that the message of God’s unconditional love is the most vital word for life anyone can receive — especially those who have never heard or truly experienced it. Her inspiring sermons share that message of hope with modern Americans by bridging the gap between the sacred and the secular. As the fruit of her non-traditional ministry directed toward those who have never been part of a church or who have been “turned off” or “disenfranchised” by the established church, McCoy’s short, to-the-point messages effectively and relevantly communicate the good news to anyone who is searching for an experience of the Divine. Readers of these sermons will be connected to a deep sense of purpose and enriched by God’s amazing love and grace.
Sermon titles include:
* Prepare For Arrival — Matthew 3:1-12
* The Power Of A Dream — Matthew 2:13-23
* Positive Identification — John 1:29-42
* Building Bridges — Matthew 5:21-37
* It’s A Mystery — Matthew 17:1-9 -
Dream Snow
$27.99Add to cartIt’s almost Christmas and it hasn’t snowed yet. As the farmer naps on his small farm, he dreams of being covered in a gentle blanket of new snow. Then, one by one, he dreams of each of his five animals (aptly named One, Two, Three, Four, and Five) being covered as well. When he awakens, he discovers that real snow–not dream snow–has fallen. And “Oh my! Oh my! I almost forgot,” the farmer shouts, and, bundling up, hurries out to his tree (named Tree) with a box and a sack, looking remarkably familiar in his white beard and red suit. After decorating Tree, the farmer shouts “Merry Christmas to all!” and pushes a button for a surprise Yuletide jingle.
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Day Miss Grouchy Melted
$7.95Add to cartTrying to prepare a holiday children’s program is often a stressful affair for both the youngsters, who worry about memorizing their lines, and for their directors, who tear their hair out trying to make sure everyone attends rehearsals, not to mention coordinating props and costumes. Mel Ann Coley has devised a way to lower the stress for everyone involved while still providing a meaningful experience. Her solution is in the form of a story told by a narrator, with children “acting out” their parts. This frees children from memorizing lines, makes the program very adaptable (it’s easy to add or delete characters), and allows for many ages to participate. It’s perfect for churches looking for a fun, easy-to-do resource that requires a minimum of rehearsals and few props!
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Humming Till The Music Returns Cycle B
$17.95Add to cartOne day God will stand again as solo conductor on the podium of the universe, and lead in the crashing finale of the symphony of Life. But until then, we who are left in this world with the buzzing and blaring of many competing and changing “top 40” hits need to keep humming the tune that Jesus taught. (from the Introduction)
The scripture lessons for these seasons combine themes of waiting in expectation and displaying the effects of eternity within the context of time. Though the dulling ache of sin and corruption pushes the song of creation out of tune, Jesus intervenes with a melody of grace, and the church keeps the music alive in witness and testimony while longing for the chorus of eternity to shout hallelujah once again. Wayne Brouwer’s messages ring loud and true in the ears of those who hear these sermons.
Sermon titles include:
I Can’t Wait — 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Tilting The Balance Of Power — Romans 16:25-27
Anti-Venom Serum — Galatians 4:4-7
Finding the Right Superlatives — Ephesians 1:3-14
Beyond Personal Preferences — 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
… and more! -
Be Born In Us Today
$17.00Add to cartBecause they are the most familiar of all Bible stories, the accounts of Jesus’ birth are perhaos the least understood. Christmas traditions have overlaid them with layers of sentimentality, and we no longer hear their dramatic, disturbing content. With clarity and vividness, John Davies explores these stories afresh, finding in them stirring challenges to our lives today. For all who long to cut through the relentless commercialism of the season and rediscover the wonder of the Word made flesh, Be Born in Us TOday will prove inspiring and unforgettable.
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Lights Symbols And Angels
$12.95Add to cartLights, Symbols And Angels is a compilation of related worship resources that will enhance the Advent/Christmas worship life of any congregation, large or small.
O Come, Blessed Light Of The World! is ideal for raising awareness of the Advent season for families. Those using the material will learn about the Advent candles, read God’s Word for the day, and have a challenge of action each week. Devotions include a reading, reflection, and prayer.
Celebrating The Advent Wreath is a special Advent service which can be used for mid-week or women’s programs. Reflections on each candle will help participants learn more about the Advent wreath.
Christmas Symbols And Songs is a program which blends sharing the meaning of traditional Christmas symbols with the singing of a variety of carols. It’s excellent for a fellowship potluck, women’s tea or program, mid-week worship service, or an intergenerational event.
Angels Inspire Our Worship is an order of worship with a skit that’s ideal for a youth program. The skit, Hark! It’s Harold And The Angel Band, dramatizes an imaginary encounter between Gabe (the archangel Gabriel disguised as a stock boy), Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Grumpier (old men shopping at Heaven’s Grocery Store), and an angel band led by Harold.
Angels In The Outfield is a resource for a Sunday worship experience, mid-week service, or special Advent program. The worship is designed around the ministry of angels, using a baseball theme with appropriate hymns featuring angels.
A Christmas Celebration is a communion/candlelight service for Christmas Eve with readings, litanies, and carols.
A prolific and enthusiastic writer of worship resources, Cynthia E. Cowen has been an established writer with CSS Publishing Company since 1991. She received a B.A. degree in education from Northern Michigan University and is a graduate of the Northern Great Lakes Synod Lay School for Mission. Cowen has served as a licensed lay minister in the Northern Great Lakes Synod of the ELCA at Calvary Lutheran Church, Quinnesec, Michigan, and is currently a rostered Associate in Ministry in Youth And Family at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Iron Mountain, Michigan. She was elected to the Executive Board of the Church Wide Women’s Organization of the Women of the ELCA in 1996, and served on its Printed Resources committee.
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Drinking With Saint Nick
$19.99Add to cartRegnery History
Your guide to drinking, entertaining, and spreading good cheer during the Christmas season.
Michael Foley, author of Drinking with the Saints, presents cocktail recipes and wine, beer, and cider recommendations that will keep hearths warm and parties joyful throughout the holidays. With stories about the history of St. Nicholas and other saints, as well as an advent calendar leading up to Christmas, this gift book is a must for anyone who starts stringing lights and playing Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving. Let the Christmas games begin!
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Hear The Bells Ring
$7.95Add to cartAnyone who has used Cynthia Cowen’s resources knows that they have the following characteristics:
They are complete — everything you need is here;
They require little preparation, rehearsal, or props;
They are theologically sound and spiritually uplifting.Many churches have discovered recently that families wish to include worship in the festivities of their Christmas day. This is the perfect way to do it without requiring a lot of work.
It’s all here: call to worship, Christmas carols, litanies, meditations, scripture readings, and more!
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Coming Home
$12.95Add to cartAfter many years of preaching from the first three chapters of Luke and the first two chapters of Matthew, Frank Ramirez decided to preach about something a little different around Christmastime. What evolved was this series of seven messages for the Sundays beginning with Advent and ending with Epiphany.
Why a sermon series based on the Old Testament book of Haggai? Ramirez writes, “I’ve always been fascinated by the lesser known books of the Old Testament, partly because I’m afraid of being embarrassed in heaven if I don’t recognize some of these people!”
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Whose Birthday Is It Anyway
$7.95Add to cartFor the small church that does not have a lot of time to prepare, here is an ideal Christmas program and worship service. It can be presented as part of a Sunday School program or Sunday worship service.
The true message of Christmas is spoken through the words of “the friendly beasts,” which include two donkeys, three doves, four cows and four sheep.
This program enables children to become involved in a Christmas project in which they share their Christmas ornaments and angel food cake with the congregation.
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Behold That Star Christmas Anthology
$20.00Add to cartLooking for a fresh collection of stories to usher in the season of joy and giving? For those grown tired of commercialism, who feel that Santa Claus and red-nosed reindeer do not project the true Christmas spirit, this book may be the answer.
Containing little-known classics by old and new masters of the genre, this bestselling anthology includes stories from many lands, interspersed with songs and poems – over half the contents available in English for the first time.
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Light In The Land Of Shadows Cycle B
$12.95Add to cartLight In The Land Of Shadows contains 16 sermons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Transfiguration Sundays.
This book makes connections between Old Testament themes and contemporary issues. The preacher will find it exegetically sound yet filled with illustrations and insights. The lay person will find it comprehendible and useful for exploring ultimate issues within the context of meaningful Bible study.
(The) sermons are fleshed out in normal, everyday language, grammar and sentence structure — Yet the faithful preacher can take comfort in the fact that they are backed up by sound biblical exegesis. (from the Introduction)
Hal Warlick is a master at weaving a fascinating story or illustration into the sermon, dramatically portraying the scriptural message. This is Old Testament preaching at its best.
Sermon titles include:
Lighting A Fire In A Cold Room
All Dressed Up And Somewhere To Go
Any FAX From God Today?
Will We Enjoy Heaven?
Pain And Promise In The Hand Of God -
Wrinkled Wrappings
$12.95Add to cartWrinkled Wrappings is a series of pulpit messages for Advent and Christmas carved from the pen and emanating from the heart of a distinguished preacher whose messages inspire hope in the hearts of believers. Brokhoff is especially skilled at relating biblical stories to modern life. The flowing style of these sermons is peppered with gripping illustrations that catch us where we are and carry us along as he shines the light of God’s Word into our lives.
Sermons are based on texts from Mark, Luke, John, and Isaiah.
Sermon titles include:
You’re Going To Have A Baby
Good News For Bad Times
God With A Human Face
Happy Next Year? -
1st Christmas Present Ever
$7.95Add to cartVersatile — “ready-to-use” — no memorization required. Just what the volunteer ordered.
This program is appropriate for Christmas Eve or any Sunday morning in Advent. Involving children of all ages and one adult, it can be used in any size church with a few participants or many. Two versions — a longer version intended for a full-length service and a shortened version to be used in place of a sermon — are also included.
Symbols of Christmas (a tree, ornaments, candy canes, a creche and more) are combined with biblical readings and brief dialogue to create a greater understanding of Christian traditions. While the narrative dialogue is being read, a silent, active nativity scene is shown to illustrate the first Christmas present ever. (Copying privileges included.)
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1st Christmas In Origami
$14.99Add to cartA one-of-a-kind book that allows children to enjoy the Christmas story while they learn the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. Each chapter features a narrative about one of the characters in the Christmas story with easy-to-follow directions on folding that character. Eleven characters compose the finished Nativity scene.
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Kneeling In Bethlehem (Large Type)
$19.00Add to cartIn a style that is contemporary, reverent, and faith-filled, Ann Weems reflects on the mystery of the Christmas season. Included in this collection are twenty-six poems created specifically for this title as well as popular selections from her earlier workds, especially Reaching for Rainbows and Family Faith Stories. Capturing the spirit of joyful celebration, the poems can be used in worship services, read aloud at family gatherings, or used by individuals for quiet reflection.
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What Shall We Do With This Baby
$7.95Add to cartJan Spence created this short Christmas Eve children’s program for her small, rural church. It includes five brief scenes built around a suggested order of worship. Clergy can easily write a meditation to complete the service.
Speaking parts are available for a narrator and two readers. These roles are appropriate for junior or senior high students.
Any number of younger children can easily be added in non-speaking roles as shepherds, angels, and wise men. The program also included speaking roles for Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.
The service has appropriate breaks for carols or songs by children’s choirs.
Narrator: What shall we do with this baby? Yes this is the question that has echoed through time. Nothing is more helpless and needy than an infant alone. Without human help, a baby alone cannot thrive or survive. What shall we do with this baby indeed!
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Golden Bells
$12.95Add to cartIs the need a Christmas message, adult casts, and great themes of literature? This book offers two solutions:
The Bells of Christmas Eve takes place in Italy in 1520. In the final moment of the play, the bells ring — it is a miracle. Speaking parts for 8 persons. Performance time about 30 minutes. Church bells should ring as sound effects at the play’s end.The Golden Gift is set in France in 1820. The story is based on a scene from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It includes the familiar story of the ex-convict and the good bishop. The ex-convict takes the golden candlesticks. Parts for 10 persons. Performance time is about 30 minutes.
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Unplug The Christmas Machine
$17.99Add to cart1. “A Christmas Carol” Revisited
2. Women: The Christmas Magicians
3. Men: The Christmas Stagehands
4. The Four Things Children Really Want For Christmas
5. The Homecoming
6. Inside The Christmas Machine
7. The Gift Of Joy
8. A Simple Christmas
9. Christmas RevivalAppendix: Resources For A Simple Christmas
Additional Info
Nine years and thriteen printings later, Unplug The Christmas Machine is still the undisputed guide to creating a joyful, stress-free holiday season. Revised and filled with new material, this book will enjoy even greater popularity in the years to come. -
Saint Nicholas Speaks
$7.95Add to cartIncludes Costume Instructions
How recently have you shared with your congregation and its children the story of the “Christian” Saint Nicholas? This book offers you the opportunity to tell the story in a visual way by dressing the part of The Bishop of Myra, Turkey.
Saint Nicholas Speaks enables you to tell the story in an informal format with children, from your pulpit, or to groups outside the church. The monologue is also appropriate for parents and grandparents to read to young children during Advent.
The book offers instructions on how to make Saint Nicholas’ costume and a brief description of Christmas traditions in eight countries around the world.
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Choices
$7.95Add to cartYour congregation’s children are the focus of this spectacular service for Christmas Eve.
Traditional Christmas scripture texts are skillfully interwoven with mimed dramatizations, dramatic dialogs in contemporary language, and familiar hymns and carols in this complete order of worship.
With something for everyone to do, from pre-schoolers to high school seniors, your children — and their parents — will personally experience the joy of the Christ child’s birth — and the choices which that miraculous event gives us.
Performance Time: approximately 45 minutes.
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Places Of The Promise
$12.95Add to cart“The Advent/Christmas story is one that identifies specific places as the font of the rich interactions between God and humanity. The names of such locales are as familiar to us as our own homes.”
Here are six sermons with accompanying children’s sermons. The series covers Advent 1 through Christmas 1. Each sermon focuses on the particular sphere God used to prepare creation for the gift of Jesus.
The sermons offer:
* Texts from Lectionary Cycle B
* Other suggested texts
* Suggestions for congregational activitiesThe children’s sermons follow an advent wreath-lighting series. Following Christmas, these sermons use the Christmas tree and the creche scene as themes. Each children’s sermon offers at least three objects to use as illustrations.
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Prophets Bread Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartFrom the author of the vastly popular “Gospel Horizons” series, comes this new collection of deeply thoughtful, personal; yet, universal responses to First Lesson lectionary texts for the Advent season.
Drawn from the author’s own searching questions and sensitive insights, these model homilies will deepen your understanding of the proclaimers and prophets who were sustained by the word of the Lord.
Messages include:
– God as Woodcutter
– The Glance of God
– What God Sees
– Six Cloudy Days
and thirteen more!
For use with Common Lectionary texts. -
Shepherds Of Bethlehem
$7.95Add to cartThis Christmas Eve Candlelight Service takes your congregation to the hills and homes of Bethlehem on the night that Jesus was born. Monologs by local shepherds and their families reflect on the hopes and expectations of the common people who populated that quiet, historic town. Prayers and suggested hymns combine with traditional Christmas readings and the drama of candlelight to create a spectacular and reverent Christmas Eve worship event.
Staging and costuming can be simple or complex. Includes reading parts for up to eight older youth and adults, and walk-on parts as desired.
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Come Sing And Celebrate
$7.95Add to cartHere are two delightful Christmas plays for a special celebration with your parish’s children, youth, and adults.
The Night Love Was Born by Mary Jane Mulder is a contemporary re-enactment, in word and song, of the first Christmas story, set within the world of imagination — where even a cynical toy soldier can learn the true meaning of Christmas.
Originally written for participation by up to fifty children, this flexible pageant can be tailored to suit the needs and resources of large or small congregations. Staging can be either simple or elaborate, and the entire performance can be presented in forty minutes.
Angels We Have Heard on High Street by J. Richard Coyle is a modern version of the Gospel’s account of Christ’s birth, using contemporary characters who present their message in music and mime. Parts are involved for participants of all ages, and congregational involvement is required. Staging and production are flexible, and can accommodate abundant or limited resources. Performance time is also flexible.
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Reading The Signs Cycle C
$12.95Add to cartIf you are like many parish pastors, you find the Christmas season to be the most frustrating season of the church year — so much to do, so much to celebrate, so much to say — and so little time to prepare it all!
That is why J. Ellsworth Kalas has prepared these twelve thoughtful sermons — to help you present the meaningful and coherent messages you want your congregation to hear during this busiest of seasons.
Within are sermons for every Cycle C gospel text during the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany seasons from the Common, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic lectionaries, including:
– The Signs of Summer
– The Hinge of History
– Songs of the Season
– Return to the New
– From Empty Nets to Full Lives
– Awake to GloryUse these complete sermons as presented — or as jumping-off points for your own meaningful messages.
