2023 Seminars: Apply Now

We're hosting and accepting applications for the following seminars:

Imaginative Reading for Creative Preaching - July 31 - August 4

Preach When the Spirit Says Preach: Preaching and Leading in the Power of the Spirit - August 7-11

Explore CTS's New & Innovative DMin

Three options to grow in your ministry via distance learning with one week per semester on campus in Michigan.

Preaching Connections

Explore our Preaching Connections collection for illustrations and quotes on over 100 common preaching topics like joy, compassion, and sin.

This Week's Sermon Commentaries

John 11:1-45 Sermon Commentary

Comments, Questions, and Observations The word “love” is used only three times to describe Jesus’s feelings for the siblings, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, but it permeates the entire narrative. Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus to let him know that their shared beloved, Lazarus, is ill to the point of death. Jesus tells…

Read More

Ezekiel 37:1-14 Sermon Commentary

Sample sermon:  It is a sad statement on the last 100 years that we can rather easily imagine the scene Ezekiel describes in his famous 37th chapter. Whether or not the people in Ezekiel’s original audience had ever seen such a valley full of bones, we have. We’ve seen the mass graves of Auschwitz and…

Read More

Psalm 130 Sermon Commentary

This poem is labeled a “Psalm of Ascent” but it starts as a Psalm of Descent.  It is called De Profundis in older Bibles—the Latin for “from the depths.”   When last this came up for the Lectionary Year A Fifth Sunday in Lent in 2020, the initial COVID lockdown was in its second week.  Some…

Read More

Romans 8:6-11 Sermon Commentary

Remote controlled vehicles, whether cars, boats or even airplanes, make wonderful toys. So wonderful, in fact, that children sometimes argue and even fight over who will control them. There’s something about completely controlling something’s movements that can prove to be almost irresistible. But you’ve ever watched two children grapple over the same “joystick” you’ve probably…

Read More

The Center for Excellence In Preaching

We provide pastors with fresh and vibrant resources to enhance your preaching. Explore our library of sermon commentaries including our new sermon commentaries made available each week. Dive into our key preaching connection topics and find relevant illustration ideas from movies and literature. Fine-tune your preaching with short, refreshing teaching videos on various aspects of preaching. We also curate lists of recommended commentaries and books and provide information on upcoming conferences and seminars.

bible

The Center for Excellence in Preaching serves the church by providing preachers with fresh ideas and resources to help make the weekly sermon from God's Word an eventful and vibrant proclamation of grace and hope. CEP is a resource from Calvin Theological Seminary.