Sermon Songs for Acts and Revelation

Sermon Songs for Acts and Revelation is comprised of fifty-six trademarked sermon songs that John W. Fisher developed by taking sermon notes each Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, Fort Myers Florida. He then turned "sermon notes into notes of song:" He went on to set them to hymns, spirituals, folk tunes, pop tunes, children's songs and occasionally to his own music (sheetmusicplus.com) so that his lyrics express the meaning, as he discerns it, from the sermon's biblical text. Opposite each sermon song is a space for the reader to take his or her own notes on his sermon songs, on the scripture, the musical settings, or just their own thoughts of the day.

One special feature of this book for Acts is "The Birth of the Church in Two Acts," which provides a special alternative form of worship, which he has defined as "A Service in Sacred Song." It applies ten sermon songs that tell the story of the beginning of the Christian church. It is in the form of a litany between scripture readings by the pastor and vocal responses by the congregation, the choir, and soloists. The Catholic and Orthodox churches have a proud tradition of the Mass in which classical masters throughout the ages have composed music according to a set pattern. Now Evangelical and Protestant churches can celebrate their own "services in sacred song" with "The Birth of the Church in Two Acts," and from my previous book, "Saint Mark's Passion." Moreover, at the end of Revelation is a similar service, not with sermon songs but Christmas carols, which is similar to "A Service of Lessons and Carols."