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Philip Garside Books
Lay Preaching Basics - eBooks.
Lay Preaching Basics - eBooks.
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Lay Preaching Basics: A Practical Guide to Leading Worship.
By Rosalie Sugrue
A comprehensive and encouraging handbook that equips lay preachers and worship leaders with practical tools, creative resources, and confidence to lead meaningful services.
A practical guide that will help you:
- Gain confidence in preparing and leading worship services
- Understand essential Bible content and its relevance for worship
- Create meaningful reflections and sermons tailored to your congregation
- Develop engaging services for different settings, including cafés and rest homes
- Access tried and tested prayers, liturgies, and complete service outlines
- Learn practical tips for using PowerPoint, service sheets, and managing time
- Support your spiritual formation as a competent and authentic worship leader
Features
- Step-by-step guide to planning and leading worship services
- Comprehensive background on Bible content and key theological concepts
- Creative ideas for children’s talks, devotions, and family time
- Sample service outlines for different occasions and settings
- Valuable appendices including prayers, liturgies, and worship resources
Philip Garside Publishing Ltd (2018)
You are buying a zipped file containing eBook editions of this 230 page book in PDF, ePub and Mobi formats.
ISBNs:
Kindle 9781927260876
ePub 9781927260883
PDF 9781927260890.
Description
Are you being called to lead worship, but not sure where to start?
Lay Preaching Basics is a practical, down-to-earth guide for beginners and experienced lay preachers alike.
Drawing on her decades of experience as a Methodist lay preacher and educator, Rosalie Sugrue offers a treasure trove of wisdom, encouragement, and ready-to-use resources that will inspire and equip you to lead worship with confidence.
In this comprehensive handbook, Rosalie takes you step-by-step through everything you need to know to plan and deliver meaningful worship.
The first third of the book provides an accessible introduction to the Bible, key characters, and essential theological concepts.
She then guides you through the nitty-gritty of creating and leading services—whether in a traditional church, a café, a rest home, or an alternative worship space.
You’ll find a wide variety of complete service outlines, prayers, meditations, children’s talks, and creative ideas designed to engage congregations of all ages.
Rosalie also shares invaluable practical tips, including how to use PowerPoint effectively, how to adapt services for different settings, and how to develop your own authentic preaching voice.
Her advice on sermon preparation reminds preachers that a sermon must be their own prayerful reflection, rather than something copied from a book or the internet.
Lay Preaching Basics is an essential companion for anyone stepping up to lead worship in Aotearoa New Zealand’s evolving church landscape.
Whether you are just starting out or looking to refresh your approach, this book will inspire you to engage souls and foster authentic, relevant worship experiences.
About the Author
Rosalie Reynolds Sugrue is a fifth-generation West Coaster and lifelong Methodist lay preacher. A former president of the NZ Lay Preachers’ Association, Rosalie has led hundreds of services in New Zealand and the UK. With a professional background as a psychiatric nurse, teacher, and motellier, she brings a lifetime of diverse experience to her ministry. Rosalie is a passionate advocate for lay leadership and has contributed significantly to the Methodist Church through her roles in women’s and social justice organisations. Now retired, she continues to lead services regularly and enjoys writing, family life, and community involvement.
Contents
Introduction
1 — Help! The Preacher hasn’t arrived
2 — Introduction to the Gospels
3 — Essential Background Knowledge
4 — Making Reflections Memorable
5 — Making Services Meaningful
6 — How to organise a church service
7 — Lectionary and Liturgy
8 — How to prepare a reflection (sermon)
9 — Service sheets and PowerPoints
10 — The Preacher’s Satchel
11 — Children’s Time / Family Time
12 — Circle and Cafe style services
13 — Services for rest homes
14 — Devotions: Ideas to build on
15 — Complete Service Samples
16 — Sample ‘Family Time’ slots
17 — Sample Cafe Services
18 — Ideas for Devotions, Family Time and Less Formal Services
19 — Sample Prayers
20 — Theology Guides for the 21st Century
21 — Additional Worship Resources
Click for Print book
Praise for Lay Preaching Basics
(Touchstone is the monthly newspaper of the
Methodist Church of New Zealand.)
In the first part of her book, Rosalie introduces the reader to the Bible by providing basic information about content, characters and concepts in both testaments. There is enough to stimulate the mind and encourage further exploration by referring to the up-to-date bibliography at the end of the book.
The author then moves to the nitty-gritty of how to plan a service of worship, giving general outlines and practical tips along the way. There are examples of orders of service, sermon outlines and pointers on presentation.
But this is not just a ‘how-to’ book. Rosalie reminds the would-be worship leader that worship must be meaningful and relevant for the particular congregation. As she reminds the reader, “It is about engaging the soul.” What might suit a café style service in the local parish will not be suitable for a rest home service of worship. She encourages the use of participation, silence, music and visual aids.
The rest of the book is a rich and varied selection of resources for use in worship, most of which are from Rosalie’s own pen. They are the fruit of her background and experience as a teacher and are tried and tested if used in the right context. There are ideas for the different seasons and festivals of the church year, time with children, themes for opening devotions, dialogues and plays, reflections and meditations.
The section of prayers and liturgical resources is particularly useful for the beginning worship leader. For example, there is a fine prayer for Disability Sunday which begins, “God of struggles, strengths and strategies, help us to cope with what we have…”
It is too easy these days to ‘copy and paste’ material from the internet, even reproducing whole sermons as one’s own. Rosalie reminds us that the sermon “Is the one piece of a service that cannot be taken from a book” [or the internet]. She suggests prayerful preparation and mulling over of one’s random thoughts on a passage of scripture which will help “You explore and firm up on what you believe.” This is what congregations want and need to hear.
This is a practical book which will inspire, encourage and educate anyone who has a calling to lead worship in their local congregation or region.”
Along with the endorsement and support of a congregation, this is a useful book to go hand-in-hand with study and spiritual formation for anyone who is considering the journey towards becoming a trained and competent Lay Preacher. I recommend it!” Viv Whimster, 2016–2018 Vice-President, Methodist Church of New Zealand.
“This book is just what New Zealand churches need to support the emerging lay leadership in worship services.” John Thornley, Lay Preacher, Palmerston North.
