October 2025

Dear preachers,

In this issue of For the Messengers, I'm pleased to introduce a new sermon series we created in collaboration with Global Ministries. It's got five weeks of sermon starters, exegetical reflection, and liturgy suggestions designed to help your congregation get to know the work of the Disciples around the world. Check it out and let me know what you think.

We've also got an article from Phil Snider, who offers a helpful way of thinking about preaching as resistance.

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you at the Disciples Preaching Retreat in a few weeks! Rooms are sold out at the retreat center, but we've got a few commuter spots open if you want to join us.

If you missed last week's panel discussion about preaching in small congregations, you can watch it here. There's plenty of good wisdom there, no matter the size of your church.

We're now accepting applications for bivocational preaching grants, but the deadline is November 1, so don't wait if you intend to apply!

Grateful for you,

Rev. Lee Hull Moses

Executive Director, The Proclamation Project

Office of the General Minister and President

The Rev. Dr. Phil Snider is the lead pastor at Brentwood Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Springfield, MO. His books include Preaching After God and Preaching as Resistance.

Preaching as Resistance

When it comes to politics in the pulpit, pastors often wonder how to preach on current events and hot button topics. But given the constant blitz of the news cycle, it can feel impossible to keep up, especially when so much news breaks on a Saturday night or Sunday morning, well after most sermons have already been prepared.

The truth of the matter is that no pastor can keep up, nor can any one person. Indeed, the dominating nature of the news cycle is designed to make everyday people feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and on the edge of despair. Doomscrolling is among the despot’s best friends; it can make folks feel so tired, confused, and helpless that they don’t know how to resist, even as they desperately want to resist.

While there is certainly a valued place for prophetic preaching on hot button issues, pastors are invited to go a step further by helping shape communal sites of embodied resistance that transcend the headlines, wherein preaching is not merely about describing the world, but changing the world. This approach helps congregants reimagine and experience their lives freed from the authoritarian narratives which the dominant principalities and powers wish to impose upon them. And it aims to help those benefitting from—and (perhaps unwittingly) colluding with—those powers to imagine ways to disentangle their lives from them. In this sense, preaching is a communal act of liberation, rooted in deep solidarity and freedom..

A Global Table: Sharing in God's Abundant Life

Produced in collaboration with Global Ministries, A Global Table is designed to introduce your congregation to the core values of Global Ministries: community, mutuality, justice, peace, presence. This is five-week, undated series, which includes sermon starters and liturgy suggestions, could be used any time that fits your schedule.

Check it Out

New Sermon Series!

Grant Application Now Open

The Proclamation Project is pleased to offer a limited number of small grants to support preachers in bivocational ministry settings.

Bivocational grants for preaching are intended for Disciples preachers who preach regularly in a local congregation and also hold employment outside the congregation they serve.

Preachers can apply for up to $500 to support their growth in preaching in a way that makes the most sense in their individual context.

Learn more and apply

Got a Recommendation?

Help us build our resource library by recommending a resource you've found helpful or sharing something you've created.

Submit a Resource

Call for Disciples Materials

We are working on a congregational resource designed to help churches grow in their identity as part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). If you have created your own materials on this topic, would you be willing to share? (Note that at this point, we're just looking for materials for internal review; if we see something we want to incorporate into our materials, we'll reach back out to ask permission.) If you have sermons, sermon series, or other resources on Disciples identity you're willing to share, please send them to preaching@disciples.org. Thank you!

What's Your Story?

We want to hear what preaching is like for you these days. We’re looking for first-person true stories and reflections about the preaching life.

Some examples of what we’re looking for:

Tell us about a time when you were really stumped by the text but the Holy Spirit showed up anyway.
Tell us about a conversation with a parishioner that was inspired by a sermon you preached.
Tell us something funny/scary/heart-warming that happened during one of your sermons.
Tell us how you fell in love with preaching. Or tell us why you fell out of love with preaching.
Tell us a lesson you learned through a sermon that didn’t go the way you planned.
Tell us how your preaching has changed over the years.

Submissions can be written (400-600 words) or video (3-5 minutes). Submissions chosen for publication will receive a $75 honorarium.

Read the full submission guidelines

Did you miss last month's issue of For the Messengers? Read it here.

Looking for preaching resources? Visit our Resource Library.

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We know you have a preaching story to tell. Find the submission guidelines here.

What have you read lately that has inspired your preaching? What resources do you find most helpful? We'd like to hear from you.

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