Pastors face a perennial challenge in deciding how to treat special days in the calendar. For days marked in the church year, the challenge is how to speak a fresh word about a familiar theme or story. For days marked in the civil calendar, the challenge is to discern within secular celebrations appropriate connections with the Christian gospel. In Preaching the Calendar, masterful preacher J. Ellsworth Kalas discusses the importance of embracing holidays and special days as occasions when sermons can enlarge and deepen spiritual yearnings. His words of wisdom demonstrate how this type of preaching can be done well and serve as valuable sources of stories and sermon illustrations for pastors eager to help people find new and renewed relationships with God.

Preaching the Calendar:Â Celebrating Holidays and Holy Days

Religion & Spirituality

Kalas, J. Ellsworth

Christian Books & Bibles

Westminster/John Knox Press

Christians often assume too sharp a distinction between the Old and New Testaments, argues preacher, author, and teacher J. Ellsworth Kalas. They are too quick to view the Old Testament as a strict book of laws and commandments and the New Testament as a witness to grace. The God of the Old Testament is misperceived as a God of wrath and judgment, while the God of the New Testament is viewed as a God of love and mercy.

Grace in a Tree Stump: Old Testament Stories of God's Love

Author J. Ellsworth Kalas believes there is much we can learn about our own walk with God from the people in the Bible. In this inspiring book he gives us meditations about sixteen men from Scripture, some of them well known, others not even named. Each of them, he tells us, can teach us something about ourselves and our relationship with God, "not only through their wisdom but sometimes through their errors and obvious humanness."

Men Worth Knowing: Biblical Meditations for Daily Living

Kalas offers a challenging and hopeful reflection on a conundrum that every human being deals with at some time in life, usually when facing a horrible tragedy, the death of a loved one, or the simple grinding pain of everyday existence: Why does God allow such suffering to exist? Is our pain God's will?
Pastors, students, and general readers will all benefit from the reflections of this seasoned pastor and theologian as he explores the concept of the will of God in a shattered and stubborn world.

The Will of God in an Unwilling World

How can anything be ordinary if we find the glory of God there?
Whatever might be said of life's most thrilling or transformative moments, most of our time is spent in ordinary things. We spend a third of our lives sleeping. In our adult lives, perhaps a quarter to a third of each week is spent at work. And then there's more of the common stuff: eating, waiting in line, bathing, getting dressed, and watching TV. So it is that our seventy, eighty, or ninety years go by in common ways, and we have no idea where they've gone.
Is there glory in any of this? Where is the abundant life of which Jesus spoke? In this inspiring new work, J. Ellsworth Kalas says that the glory is found not just in the ecstasy of love or victory but in all of life, whether ecstatic or ordinary. Kalas believes it is possible to live with such joy and gladness of hearts that we find our ordinary lives graced by the pleasure of God. He offers a guide to spiritual contentment in the midst of busy lives, showing us the meaning in those seemingly small aspects of every day.

The Pleasure of God: Finding Grace in the Ordinary

A wonderful resource for adult classes! Written well and provides information in a way that will spark a friendly debate!

Old Testament Stories from the Back Side

Abingdon Pr

While the Ten Commandments are known throughout the world, it's not often that we are offered a fresh take on them. Popular and beloved author J. Ellsworth Kalas approaches the Ten Commandments through the "back side"--through a unique starting point, a creative retelling, a new "lens," or the eyes of a minor character. Kalas explores how these "prohibitive" laws actually are our dear friends, intended to make life richer and more fulfilling. He uses contemporary illustrations and personal experience to show how these timeless laws give us an appetite for divine excellence. J. ELLSWORTH KALAS is a former president

The Ten Commandments from the Back Side: Bible Stories with a Twist

ABINGDON PRESS *

Using an approach similar to that in his book Parables from the Back Side, popular author J. Ellsworth Kalas brings a new perspective to selected Old Testament stories by approaching them from the back side through a unique starting point, a creative retelling, a new lens, or the eyes of a minor or unsympathetic character.

Old Testament From The Back Side Leaders Guide

Take a look at Christmas from alternative angles. Using an approach similar to his other BackSide books, Kalas crafts new insights into the scriptures of the Christmas story by looking at them from the back side . . . taking unique starting points . . . creative re-telling from different views . . . examining the story through new lenses . . . or looking through the eyes of a not-so-familiar character.

Christmas from the Back Side: A Different Look at the Story of Jesus Birth

Reference

"I confess that I am an unreconstructed optimist. Not a naive one; I’ve lived too long for that, long enough to have experienced a resounding case for pessimism. I have vivid memories of the Great Depression, and I’ve lived through several wars and those international anomalies that we call police actions. I’ve watched what has seemed to me to be a rather steady decline in both public and private morals, and a growing confusion about ethics. And of course, I’ve watched the increasing prevalence of both evil and inanity (sometimes they’re synonymous) in television and on the Internet." from the Introduction But: There is God. And because there is God, there is goodness. I profoundly believe that God is at work in our world and that our planet has not yet been written off as a lost cause. History seems to tell me that though our human race appears so often to dedicate itself to its own destruction, God is always at work, usually, I think, behind the scenes. And because of God, faith, love, and goodness keep being reborn. So I write about Life from the Up Side. Twelve sessions: On Being Born with a Rusty Spoon: For those who’ve had a bad start When Life Is at January: Who knows what wonders lie ahead? A Woman Who Lived with Scorn: For those who suffer rejection close at hand Don’t Blame the Donkey! Capitalize on your adversity When You’ve Been Given a Bad Name: Don’t let others define you Color Her Moses: Never give up. Never. Plot for a Life: More than success Party Gone Flat: What to do when life loses its flavor Suppose You’re Worth More Than You Think You Are: It’s time you calculated your worth How Wide Is a Boat? Gladness is nearer than you think Strange Victory: The gains in our losses The View from Mount Nebo: And then, there is heaven

Life from the UpSide: Seeing God at Work in the World

New Age & Spirituality

Dimensions for Living

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kalas, J. Ellsworth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kalas, J. Ellsworth