The Path from Sermons to Books
Every fall I spread out a year’s worth of Scripture, prayers, and church conversations and start shaping the sermon calendar for the next year. I do it with one ear tuned to God and the other tuned to the questions our St. John’s family keeps asking. This year the themes rose up in a way that felt almost handed to me, so I wanted to share the journey and give you a window into what I will be writing next.
One of my commitments is to write a book from each sermon series. I preach it live, then I deepen it on paper. The conversation that starts in worship keeps going in print. Some folks like listening. Some like reading. Most need both.
Here is where 2026 is heading.
Wisdom’s Holy Fools
(January and February)
The year always begins with talk of goals, resolutions, and strategies. Scripture tends to begin somewhere stranger. God calls liars, runaways, reluctant prophets, and people you would not trust with your car keys. They bumble into grace and somehow become instruments of redemption.
The older I get, the more I notice how often God chooses the unlikely. Which is why our small church in a city of megachurches feels right on time. We begin the year remembering that God’s work usually rises from overlooked people in overlooked places.
The book that will grow out of this series will explore biblical “foolishness” as a doorway to courage. It will take the weekly sermons and expand them with stories, reflection questions, and spiritual practices that help readers embrace their own imperfect calling.
Wilderness Sabbath
(Lent)
People think the wilderness is a place you visit on purpose. The Bible paints it differently. Sometimes the wilderness is where you land when life strips you bare. Hagar did not volunteer. Israel did not vote on it. Jesus did not schedule it on a retreat calendar. The Spirit shoved him out there to face what needed facing.
Lent is often turned into a self-improvement season. Give up sugar. Pray more. Try harder. The deeper truth is that wilderness seasons break us open so God can reach places we keep protected.
The book for Lent will be a forty-day devotional that moves through Scripture, prayer, and honest inner work. It will draw from the sermons but include daily reflections that help people notice God in dry seasons and trust that emptiness can become holy ground.
Resurrection Disruptions
(Easter Season)
Most churches treat Easter like the grand finale. Scripture treats it like an earthquake that keeps shaking everything. Jesus walks through locked doors, appears in gardens, cooks breakfast on a beach, and calls people by name at the strangest moments.
Resurrection is not a cheer. It is a disruption. It breaks into the parts of life we called hopeless and tells a new story.
The Easter book will look at each resurrection scene and draw out how Jesus still breaks in today. I will add stories from pastoral life, prayers for wounded places, and practices for noticing small resurrections in ordinary days.
Parables of the Kingdom
(Summer)
Summer is a time for wandering and wondering, which makes it perfect for the parables. Jesus tells stories that refuse to sit still. Generous vineyard owners, dishonest managers, pushy neighbors at midnight, party crashers who get invited in. These stories comfort and unsettle at the same time.
The book that comes from this series will gather the parables into themed sections. Each chapter will retell a parable, explore its surprise, and include a short spiritual exercise that helps readers live the story instead of just reading it.
This book will be added to my book series called "Spirit-Filled Parables for Modern America."
Letters from Prison
(Late Summer)
Paul wrote about freedom while chained to a guard. Joy in Philippians. Cosmic purpose in Ephesians. Fullness of life in Colossians. Moral courage in Philemon. These letters were born from confinement, which is why they speak so powerfully to the quiet prisons we face today.
I want our congregation to see how faith survives hard places. And I want readers to see that freedom is something God grows inside us even when outer circumstances stay the same.
The book will weave the sermons together with reflections on the modern prisons we carry in our bodies, relationships, and memories. It will be part commentary, part spiritual companion.
Generous Trouble
(Stewardship Season)
Talking about money is always delicate. Jesus talked about it constantly, so we try not to shy away. The Bible has a habit of turning financial logic inside out. Widows give last pennies. Zacchaeus throws a feast that costs him everything. Jubilee resets the economy. These stories shake us loose from the fear that keeps us clinging to what we have.
This fall series will grow into a practical book on Christian generosity, Houston stories of courage, and the deeper joy of living with open hands. Not guilt. Not pressure. Just real stories about what happens when we trust God enough to invest in people, not possessions.
Waiting in the Dark
(Advent)
Advent looks sweet from a distance. Candles. Carols. Quiet nights. Scripture tells a grittier truth. The season begins with old women carrying impossible hope, young girls saying yes to terrifying news, and long silences where God feels late.
This Advent series will become a book about waiting on God without pretending the waiting feels easy. It will include reflections on Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, Zechariah, and the ordinary people who held on through long nights.
Why I am sharing all this now
These seven series are really one long conversation about the spiritual life. We begin as holy fools who know we are unqualified. We walk into wilderness where old strategies fail. We stumble into resurrection that surprises us. We sit with strange parables that enlarge our faith. We learn freedom behind locked doors. We enter the generous trouble of kingdom economics. And we end the year waiting with stubborn hope.
I intend to write a book based on each of these sermon series in 2026. Sermons start the conversation. Books give the conversation room to breathe. It is one of the ways I stay grounded as a pastor and one of the ways I serve readers beyond Sunday morning.
If these themes speak to you, I would love to hear from you. You can reach me through the church office or on Goodreads. I am grateful for a community that wrestles with Scripture with such honesty. You make this work a joy.
If you'd like a deeper dive on this subject, here is a longer version of this article that goes into greater detail.
Peace,
Jon Burnham
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