Preparing a sermon every week is one of the hardest parts of pastoral ministry, especially if you are bivocational. SermonCentral gathers a free research library of over 150,000 pastor-contributed sermons, illustrations, and dramas that you can search for weekly prep.^1 Access to those sermons is free, more than 300 new pieces land each week, and over 250,000 church leaders come to the site every week.^1 Contributors come from over 100 countries.^1
A subscription-based PRO membership adds premium illustrations, church media, slides, and finer search.^1 The PRO plan lists over 800 video illustrations, over 800 PowerPoint templates, worship music videos, countdowns, motion backgrounds, and over 1,000 royalty-free images, and starts with a 14-day free trial.^2 Generative AI helpers include Sermon Outline AI for outlines and starter manuscripts,^3 a Sermon Research Assistant that returns a manuscript, quotes, and matching media,^4 and Funeral Sermon AI for memorial messages.^5 Sermon Outline AI tells pastors not to blindly trust the output and to double-check everything they preach.^3
A free online sermon editor, a built-in Bible reader, and a State of the Church hub mapped to Barna Group flourishing research sit beside the library.^6^8 Pew Research Center names SermonCentral among dedicated sites where pastors share sermons in text form.^9 The platform is adamantly opposed to presenting another preacher's work as your own.^10
SermonCentral is owned and operated by Outreach, Inc.,^11 the Colorado Springs church-resources company founded in 1996.^12 Scott Evans founded Outreach after helping plant a church in California and putting his marketing skills to work for other churches.^13 Gloo completed its acquisition of Outreach in 2024, and both organizations said they would keep operating independently from their Colorado headquarters.^15
"I love the PRO account and all the amazing resources, and now the new music videos that have been added make it even better, thank you!" - Tobin Crenshaw, First Church of the Brethren^16
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