Worship and Sermon Planning

Internet Resources (these are free to use)

• https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/ - contains the revised common lectionary and links to additional resources
• www.textweek.com – recommended by several people who responded
• www.umcdiscipleship.org – worship planning and music
• www.ministrymatters.com - a community of resources for church leaders
• https://re-worship.blogspot.com/ - “a great resource for prayers and calls to worship”
• www.workingpreacher.org – for sermon prep
• https://www.blueletterbible.org/ - good for quick interlinear Greek and Hebrew definitions
• www.biblegateway.com – I like to use this in order to read other translations or paraphrases of the scripture
• https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/book-of-worship - United Methodist Book of Worship online

Subscription Site

www.theworkofthepeople.com – This is a subscription site (i.e. – not free) recommended by a person who responded to my question.  He says, “it has some fantastic video resources from short prayers and liturgies to longer form films that are good for small group studies.

Books

• I recommend if you are going to purchase a resource, that you start with an excellent Study Bible with notes if you do not already have one.  I like New Oxford Annotated Study Bible, the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, and the Wesley Study Bible.
• Feasting on the Word – This is a series of lectionary based commentaries that are recommended by several people who responded to my question (including me – I love them).  There are 12 books in the set, which does make it expensive to purchase.  They are available from Amazon, and can be purchased individually (so you could buy them one at a time as you need them instead of all at once).  They can be purchased as Kindle books, as hard cover books, or as paperbacks.  You may also be able to find them as used books on Amazon.
• United Methodist Music and Worship Planner is a wire-bound book that contains lectionary readings for each Sunday, hymn suggestions, etc.  It is a book you would purchase each year – sort of like a Calendar or Planner. It is available from Cokesbury.
• The United Methodist Hymnal
• The United Methodist Book of Worship
• A Bible Atlas – An Atlas can help you understand a biblical story by showing you the relationship between different places mentioned in a passage.
• A Concordance – A concordance provides you with the ability to look up a word and find all of the times it is mentioned in the bible