Photo Courtesy of Advocate Press
Special to United Methodist Insight | July 15, 2026
The Advocate Press, a United Methodist small publishing company, has released two new books from United Methodist clergy: “What Jesus Said: Exploring the Sermon on the Plain,” by the Rev. George Hovaness Donigian, and “Meaningful Moments,” by the Rev. William F. Evans.
Both were released in June.
The Evans book contains a foreword by renowned Viktor Frankl scholar Dr. Alexander Batthyany and an afterword by celebrated theologian Dr. William H. Willimon.
In “What Jesus Said: Exploring the Sermon on the Plain,” Donigian explores what it really means to follow Jesus as a Christian disciple.
Unpacking the Sermon on the Plain
Many people understand Christian discipleship as saying the right words, making the right promise or offering the right prayer. But Jesus himself described discipleship differently—as a way of living, a set of everyday practices rooted in love, generosity, forgiveness and service.
Donigian guides readers through Luke 6:17-49, Jesus’ foundational teaching on right living. Unlike the more familiar Sermon on the Mount, Luke’s Sermon on the Plain makes no assumptions about the reader’s background in Jewish tradition, making it a remarkably accessible entry point for anyone seeking to understand what Jesus actually asked of his followers.
Chapter by chapter, Donigian unpacks the core actions of discipleship: loving even enemies, giving generously, forgiving freely, withholding judgment, and bearing fruit through service. Interactive Nexus sections throughout help readers connect these ancient teachings to the rhythms of their own lives, and a full small group and Sunday school guide makes this an ideal resource for communities of faith ready to go deeper.
The book includes a study guide for small groups and Sunday school classes.
Of the book, United Methodist Bishop Kenneth L. Carder said, “I strongly recommend this insightful and inspiring resource.”
United Methodist Church Judicial Council President Dr. Susan T. Henry-Crowe called it “intellectual artistry,” while Dr. Kevin Watson of Asbury Theological Seminary said the book “will help you grow in your discipleship. ”
Donigian attended Berry College and went to seminary at Emory University. After serving in the local church, he worked with the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, Tennessee, and later at The Upper Room as managing editor of the book department and as publisher-editor of Discipleship Resources. He has authored several books, including A World Worth Saving: Lenten Spiritual Practices for Action and Three Prayers You’ll Want to Pray.
He lives in the Upstate of South Carolina.
The book is available as a paperback and ebook from the Advocate Press directly at https://store.advocatesc.org/product/what-jesus-said or from Amazon and other major book retailers.
A new perspective on life
What if every season of your life—even the painful ones—held the seed of something meaningful? That’s the premise behind “Meaningful Moments” by Evans, a pastor, military chaplain, counselor and James Madison University professor.
Evans takes readers on an intimate journey through four seasons of a life fully lived, revealing how meaning can be found not just in triumph, but in struggle, loss and the quiet, ordinary moments we so often overlook.
Shaped by decades as a pastor, military chaplain, counselor and professor—and deeply inspired by the wisdom of Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl—Evans offers 40 reflections drawn from his own life, organized across the seasons of childhood, young adulthood, middle age and later life. Each story is a lantern held up to universal human experience: love and grief, faith and doubt, service and sacrifice, wonder and grace.
This is not a book about an extraordinary life. It is a book that insists your life is extraordinary—if only you have eyes to see it.
With a foreword by renowned Frankl scholar Dr. Alexander Batthyany and an afterword by celebrated theologian Dr. William H. Willimon, “Meaningful Moments” bridges psychology, spirituality and lived experience into something rare: a book that doesn’t just ask life’s deepest questions, but helps you find the answers in your own story.
Read it slowly. Let it stir your memories. And discover the meaning that has been waiting there all along.
Of the book, Batthyany, president of the Viktor Frankl Institute in Vienna, Austria, said, “To write a book like this is a beautiful act of service to life, to others, to meaning, to our humaneness.”
And Willimon, professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University Divinity School, said, “Let’s all follow Bill’s lead and expect, look for, work at making every season, every moment of our lives meaningful.”
Evans is a native of Winnsboro. He holds degrees from Wofford College (BA, 1976), Duke University (MDiv, 1979) and the University of South Carolina (EdS, 1993, and PhD, 1998). For 20 years, Evans served as a pastor with The United Methodist Church in North Carolina and South Carolina. He also served as a hospital chaplain at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and as a pastoral counselor at Baptist Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Evans served in the United States Air Force/Air National Guard as a Chaplain from 1984 until retiring from the South Carolina Air National Guard as a Brigadier General in 2010.
Evans is a professor of psychology at James Madison University, where he has taught since 1994.
The book is available as a paperback and ebook from the Advocate Press directly at https://store.advocatesc.org/product/meaningful-moments or from Amazon and other major book retailers.
The Advocate Press, founded by the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate in 2017, has a mission to produce books of interest to United Methodists on matters of faith and to amplify regional voices and those that advocate for the advancement of the kingdom of God. To date it has produced 40 books all available on its website, https://advocatepress.org, as well as from Amazon and other major book retailers.