Featured Items

New:

Start or join a discussion on church and/or theology in the new web forum! There are instructions to get you started.

• Some of Steve's hymns and song lyrics are now available on the website.
• Read Gloria Pulido's Charge to Seminary Students (also ask questions or share advice in the new seminary student forum)
• Recommended Biblical commentaries from Catalyst Resources

Also:

• Try an on-line study tool for the Presbyterian Bible Content Exam.
• Read Steve's essay on "The Temple of Technology " - Jeremiah on the Silicon Valley (2000).
• Read The Story of Merrill's Robe, a look back at some of the support that allowed Steve to come to seminary.
• Read Steve's essay on Excellence in Ministry for the FTE ministry fellowship (1999).
• Look at some resources for using Biblical languages.
• See today's daily lectionary readings .

Links and Resources

Resources for Students, Pastors, and Other Christians

This is a list of resources I have compiled for my own use and to share with others. If you would like to contribute to the list to make it more useful, please send me your favorite links to add to the list. --Steve

Shortcuts to the material on this page:

• Worship, Devotion, Study, Preaching Resources
• Teaching Resources
• Research Resources
• Resources for learning and using Biblical languages (new page)
• Congregational Ministry Resources
• Church Web Presence
• Presbyterian Stuff
• Seminary Student Resources

Worship, Devotion, Study, Preaching Resources

• Receive Daily Lectionary Readings by E-mail (Follow the instructions at the bottom of that page.)
• On-line Bibles at Gospelcom.net including audio Bibles and translations in almost any language you might want - great for making up handouts or PowerPoint presentations with scripture readings.
• Blue Letter Bible an interactive web exegetical tool (includes Greek and Hebrew parsing and lexicon entries as well as dictionaries and commentaries).
• The Five Gospels Parallels - This site provides online gospel parallels. Look up a passage in one gospel and you can click to see the parallels in other gospels in multiple columns on the screen. (It's called the "five" gospels because it also links the apocryphal "gospel of Thomas," but don't fear - you can also select a version with just the four canonical gospels.)
• The NET Bible - If you ever wanted to know why a particular word or phrase was translated the way it was or what other things it might mean, the NET Bible could be the answer. You can also download the HTML verison for free.
• Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words - An online version of W. E. Vine's M.A., Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words from 1940 - you can go back and forth between Greek and English.
• Web resources for learning and using Biblical languages
• The Text This Week - Loads of references for the weekly lectionary reading including commentaries and scripture-related art from various museum web sites.
• The Mission St. Clare website has worship planning resources based on the common lectionary - including Karaoke files for various songs.
  
• United Church of Christ worship planning help page - includes sample liturgies for particular Sundays as well as seeds for sermons
• United Church of Canada worship planning page (also check out their hymnal if you get a chance)
• Orthodox Icons Online - paintings intended for use in prayer.
• Professor Elizabeth Liebert's web page at San Francisco Theological Seminary - resources on Christian Spirituality
• The Method-X Site has descriptions and processes for various spiritual disciplines.
• The Taizé Community in France
• The Iona Community in Scotland
• BibleWorks Web Site - Learn about and/or purchase a great computer tool for Greek and Hebrew exegesis on your PC! Version 5.0 is even better and includes tools like multi-version searches, "synposis dialog" to let you view parallel gospel accounts in Greek and English, and full Hebrew accenting. (Read a review by the SBL.)
• And a tutorial on how to use BibleWorks from the Yale Divinity library

Teaching Resources

• BiblePlaces.com is selling a colection of CDs, but the site has a number of useful pictures of places mentioned in scripture available for free.
• Crossways International produces a number of excellent courses for teaching the whole Bible to Christians and future Christians.
• The Alpha Course - "a practical introduction to the Christian faith" - is a way to introduce seekers to the Christian faith. The Alpha USA site has a sample video of a session.
• The Workshop Rotation Model for Sunday School is very popular right now.

Research Resources

• Christian Classics Ethereal Library - As they put it, "enough reading to last a lifetime" - includes many classic biblical studies, theological, and spiritual texts. A great source of all kinds of information!
• Hymn Tune Database - has on-line hymnals, MIDI files of tunes, even some scores.
• Early Christian Writings - "All of early Christianity - New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, and Fathers"
• The Ecole Initiative - An encyclopedia of early church history, including a glossary, chronology, and images

Congregational Ministry Resources

• Church Redevelopment Site (www.churchredevelopment.net) describes ways to revitalize a congregation
• The Youth Specialties web site has lots of helpful resources for those working with youth. (I've found that many youth-oriented activities work well with adults and intergenerational groups too - probably not the messy stuff, though :-)
• "Deeper Still: Hope for Those Who Grieve" at grieving.org offers resources for those who are grieving, but be sure to read them before giving them to someone. Before referring anyone, you may want to be sure that their interpretatiuon of the way God is involved in suffering matches yours.
• New Life Ministries (www.newlife.com) offers resources for dealing with a number of personal and family problems from a Christian perspective. Again, check it out first.

Church Web Presence

• A useful tutorial on how to create a web page for your church

Presbyterian Stuff

• The Presbyterian Church (USA) web site
• Unofficial On-line Presbyterian (USA) Book of Confessions
• The Presbyterian (USA) Book of Order

Resources for Seminary Students

• Look for Catalyst, a helpful journal for seminary students.
• Seven years of practice ordination exams (Warning: This is a 400+ page PDF file. It's really big.)
• Bible Content Exam practice test tool
• On-line Presbyterian Committee on Preparation for Ministry (CPM) Forms
• Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (For the Pacific Region, click here.)