Why do I call this volume “Sermons from the Heart”? It actually has two meanings for me. It is a description of my style of preaching. I do not preach from a text and rarely from notes. I don’t technically memorize my sermon but instead I know it by heart when I step into the pulpit. It’s not the easiest way but for me it is the only way because I want my preaching to be a conversation between myself and the people I love and serve. So it is that I find the second reason I entitled this book “Sermons from the Heart.” Every time I preach, I am preaching as one who wants to share what is on my heart to people who are in my heart.
Each of the sermons included in this volume plays a role in giving a glimpse of my preaching ministry. These sermons are not handpicked because they are the best sermons I ever preached. I wouldn’t know how to judge which ones those might be. Instead they are simply chosen to represent the work I have done over these nearly four decades as a Pastor/Preacher. I have chosen sermons from each of the three phases of my ordained ministry. A few date back to my youthful days joyfully serving the Wyalusing and Sugar Run Presbyterian Churches in Pennsylvania, more come from my twenty years given lovingly to the people of Conklin Presbyterian Church in New York and a few more are from my present ministry among the wonderful people of Fairfield Presbyterian Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
