Simplify the Message, Multiply the Impact

Simplify the Message: Multiply the Impact is designed to help preachers break through the noise of culture and the cauldron of church to deliver sermons with clarity, passion, and boldness. This book meets the needs of two cohorts in particular: 1) young preachers developing their skills who need structure, a process, and hope, and 2) more seasoned preachers who may have “settled” needing tools to invigorate their preparation and inspire their delivery.

Paul told the Corinthians: “When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified.” (I Corinthians 2:1-2, CEB)

Author Talbot Davis shares the insights and habits that will empower the reader’s preaching and teaching to be:

Both creative and disciplined;
Both carefully prepared and thoroughly spontaneous; and
Both rooted in history and connected to modernity.


Simple is the opposite of simplistic. Sermons with clear & unmistakable focus are best able to plumb the depths not only of Gospel beauty but of the hearers’ lives.

Solve

Finding God's Solutions in a World of Problems

Many people are good at pointing out problems. What if God’s people were among the few who are good at finding solutions? How would our world and our lives be different? This five-week study focuses on the person of Nehemiah in the Bible, who faced the difficult work of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem after his people returned from exile. Confronted with this complicated task and the many dilemmas that came with it, Nehemiah chose not to dwell on his problems or to pursue his own answers. Instead, he sought God’s solutions, following God’s lead and trusting God’s purposes. God’s people today are called to do the same. In each chapter, Talbot Davis shows how Nehemiah’s experiences mirror the problems we face, as individuals and as a society. As you read this book, you will hear God’s call to be someone who finds solutions. You will see how you can follow in Nehemiah’s footsteps, building up your life and the world around you. You will be challenged not to focus on problems, but to seek God’s solutions and how you can help bring them about.

This book is based on a sermon series Talbot Davis delivered at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church. Each chapter includes questions for reflection and discussion, a practical focus for the week, a closing prayer, and daily scripture passages to guide personal reading throughout the week.

The Shadow of a Doubt

Confronting Challenges to Faith

We all have doubts. Throughout this five-week study, Davis invites you to acknowledge and confront your doubts about your Christian faith. Each chapter focuses on a different biblical story that illustrates a key insight into doubt and its effects on our faith. By bringing our doubts out of the shadows and into the light, we have an opportunity to experience an authentic faith seeking understanding.

Discussion questions at the end of each chapter are designed to help leaders of small groups. Also available when purchasing the book is access to a free video trailer and an audio recording of the author's sermons as another way to experience the weekly message.

Crash Test Dummies

Surprising Lessons from the Book of Judges

You've seen them, haven't you? They ride in the front seats of expensive cars and drive headlong into a brick wall. And then they do it again. And again. They're crash test dummies. Why do they keep doing the same dumb thing over and over again? Or maybe a better question is, why do we?

In this six-week study on the Book of Judges, author Talbot Davis explores the stories of the judges from the perspective of the Israelite' repeated failure to be faithful to God alone. Through his creative, quirky angle on the book, Davis highlights how the Israelites in Judges made the same mistake of apostasy over and over again. Each time God delivered them, they eventually fell back into the predictable, tragic pattern.

As he explores each judge's story, Davis invites readers to consider the shape that patterns of sin take in our lives, and how God seeks to free us from them and empower us for faithful living. Readers will come to know the Book of Judges and its central characters more deeply, and they will come to appreciate this biblical book as a source of wisdom for living well.

Discussion questions and a practical focus for each week will also accompany each chapter.

Head Scratchers

When the Words of Jesus Don't Make Sense

The focus of this five-week study is on some of Jesus’ difficult sayings that readers of the Gospels find perplexing or offensive. Each session, Davis examines a different statement or brief teaching from Jesus, offering biblical and other relevant background to help illuminate the passage in question. The message in each chapter goes beyond information and clarifying background. Davis’s goal is not only to help readers understand the passage, but to take it to heart and embrace a new way of life as a result. He starts with a piece of scripture that many struggle to make sense of, and opens it to reveal a challenging, hopeful word that manifests the Gospel’s transformative power. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter are designed to help leaders of small groups. Also available when purchasing the book is access to a free video trailer and an audio recording of the author's sermons as another way to experience the weekly message.