How to “Google” a Sermon

By David Thornhill

I have a hankering. The information highway is becoming the pastor’s library. With the increase of resources available online and connection speeds growing the Internet can be a great tool for sermon research. Part of the problem is that there are so many resources available on the web. I went to www.Google.com and typed in the word “Sermon” and the search engine listed 2.4 million web sites for me to choose from. For the purpose of this article I have boiled that list down to just a few resources that I regularly use. I hope that they may be helpful to you as well. And here’s the kicker: these web sites are all free!

Want to read the Bible?

www.biblegateway.com is by far the best resource for reading the Bible online. It offers many versions and even can even look up specific verses in The Message. It also has study tools as well as links to other helpful sights.

Want to listen to sermons?

Thousands of pastors post their sermons on church and personal web sites.

www.nazarenepastor.org has a page where you can listen to the weekly sermons of several preachers from our denomination.

www.willowcreek.com has online audio and video clips of their sermons and all the special speakers that they have.

www.preachersmagazine.com has a page that will direct you to several sites that offer online sermons as well as other resources.

Want to research a text?

www.textweek.com in my opinion is the best online resource. It follows the lectionary but has a text archive where you can research any text. It offers a wide range of resources for every text, including video clips, commentary, sermons and so on.

The best Greek/English resource I have found is

www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/fischer/gnt/chapters.htm

The Hall of Church history http://www.gty.org/~phil/hall.htm contains what the site refers to as “Theology from a Bunch of Dead Guys.”

www.biblestudytools.com also offers a host of online help.

www.barna.org offers statistics on many church-related items.

Want to find illustrations?

If I have the time I will sometimes simply go to www.google.com and do an image search on a theme word from my sermon. I have found all sorts of inspiring images that lead to discovering what’s going on in the real world.

www.news.yahoo.com has current events from around the world. You can type in a theme as well and it will bring you to the current events surrounding that theme.

I use my local online newspaper as well as ones like www.nytimes.com or www.usatoday.com for current and past stories.

Want video clips?

www.altavista.com has a video clip search engine. I often will type in a theme word from my sermon in this engine and find all sorts of great (and sometimes weird) clips. We’ve found commercials and clips from TV shows on this site that we’ve used in worship on several occasions.

www.textweek.com also has a movie index where you can look up clips on any theme.

Dave Thornhill is the lead pastor of GracePoint Church of the Nazarene in Shawnee, Kansas