eSermons.com announces Rev. Sweet as Chief Writer. Part of our goal in bringing Leonard on is to provide sermon resources, insights, and commentary that are as current, relevant, and "ripped from the headlines" as possible. Leonard Sweet is one of the most prominent writers of our generation and his insights into Scripture and its relationship to current events will add credibility and spontaneity to the sermon writing process.
Leonard Sweet has been described as:
"One of the church's most important and provocative thinkers."
Voted "One of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America" (2006, 2007)
"No church leader understands better how to navigate the seas of the 21st century."
"A writer of vast imagination, poise and charm."
"I can't imagine a Christian leader in America who hasn't read one or more of Leonard Sweet's books."
"Some statistician-types will drown you in doom and gloom. Sweet's message is uplifting, hopeful and relevant."
A Short Bio
Currently the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew Theological School (Madison, NJ), and Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University (Portland, OR), Leonard Sweet is the author of more than one hundred articles, 600 published sermons and thirty books, most recently The Gospel According to Starbucks (2007).
Sweet's web-based preaching resources have been used by thousands for 20 years. Founder and President of SpiritVenture Ministries, Sweet is a frequent speaker and conversation partner at conferences both in the US and around the globe. In both 2006 and 2007 he was voted "One of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America" (www.thechurchreport.com). His current projects include a preaching text entitled Giving Blood, The Leadership Myth (with Joe Myers), Pay Attention: Every Bush is Burning, and later in 2007, Outstorming The Perfect Storm.
More on Leonard:
These are but a sampling of responses to Len's three-ring mission: as a historian of American culture; as a futurist/semiotician who "sees things the rest of us do not see, and dreams possibilities that are beyond most of our imagining;" and as a preacher and writer who communicates the gospel powerfully to a postmodern age by bridging the worlds of academe and popular culture.
Currently the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew University, Madison, NJ and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University, Portland, Oregon, Len has been Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Theological School at Drew University for five years, Previous to Drew Len served for eleven years as President and Professor of Church History at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio. Prior to 1985, Len was Provost of Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall/Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York. Involved in leadership positions in the United Methodist Church, Len has been chosen to speak at various Jurisdictional and General Conferences as well as the 1996 World Methodist Congress in Rio de Janeiro. He also serves as a consultant to many of America's denominational leaders and agencies. He is a member of the West Virginia Annual Conference.
Author of more than one hundred articles, over six hundred published sermons, and dozens of books, Len was the primary contributor (along with his wife Karen Elizabeth Rennie) to another web based preaching resource called Preaching Plus. For nine years in the he and his wife wrote all content featured in Homiletics Magazine, which became, under their watch, the premier preaching resource in North America. His best-selling book FaithQuakes (1994), selected as one of the "10 best religion books" and "10 must-read books" of 1994 was succeeded by a new best-seller SoulTsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture (1999).
Soul Tsunami was the first in a trilogy of third millennium resources to help leaders come to terms with postmodern culture. The second installment on how to "do church," AquaChurch, was published in 1999. How to "do life" is the focus of the third volume, SoulSalsa: 17 Surprising Steps to Godly Living, which hit the bookstores in 2000 at the same time an original theme song for the book "Soul Salsa" hit the charts (you had to be age six to like it). Each book in Len's postmodern trilogy has its own website and multi-medial components, some of which have already received national awards. One was even nominated for a Grammy.
In 2000 two more books appeared. Postmodern Pilgrims, and the first religion e-book on Amazon.com written as an e-book, The Dawn Mistaken for Dusk: If God So Loved the World, Why Can't We? The e-book came out in an expanded hardback version in the summer of 2001 under the title Carpe Manana: Is Your Church Ready to Seize Tomorrow? In the past two years, five books have been published: "A" is for Abductive: the Language of the Emerging Church (with Brian McLaren and Jerry Haselmeyer); Jesus Drives Me Crazy: Lose Your Mind, Find Your Soul; The Church in the Emerging Culture (with Michael Horton, Erwin McManus, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Andy Crouch, and Brian McLaren), Summoned to Lead, and his two most recent books, Out of the Question . . . Into the Mystery: Getting Lost in the God Life Relationship and The 3 Hardest Words in the World to Get Right. His most current book is The Gospel According to Starbucks (2007).
Founder and President of SpiritVenture Ministries (SVM), in 1995 Len launched Sweet's SoulCafe, a spirituality newsletter for post moderns that was purchased by Broadman & Holman Publishing. Current projects include a biography of Phoebe Palmer in the American religion biography series, a textbook on preaching entitled Giving Blood, The Leadership Myth (with Joseph R. Myers), and Pay Attention: Every Bush is Burning. Len is also working on his first novel (A Postmodern Pilgrim's Progress), and a multi-media leadership resource yet untitled.
Len has served a term on the council of the American Society of Church History, was an associate editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion for ten years, and is a member of numerous professional groups. An honors and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Richmond, he earned his Master of Divinity degree from Colgate Rochester Divinity School and Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. The recent recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Richmond (Virginia), Baker University (Kansas), Otterbein College (Ohio), Coe College (Iowa), and Lebanon Valley College (Pennsylvania), Len has held distinguished lectureships at various colleges, universities and seminaries, and has presented academic papers before major professional societies. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences, state conventions, pastors' schools, retreats, and a featured columnist for REV magazine.
Len is increasingly being asked to lecture around the world, and has spoken in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Korea, Iceland, Scotland, and continues to speak around the globe.
