In his new book Heaven and Earth: Advent and the Incarnation, Professor William H. Willimon introduces readers to the God who brings heaven to earth and changes everything.

It’s not within our own power to make a fresh start. If we’re to have a future different from the past, it must come as a gift, something not of our devising. What we need is a God who refuses to be trapped in eternity, a God who not only cares about us but is willing to show up among us and do something with us, here and now. In Advent, we celebrate and anticipate the earth-shaking, life-transforming good news that God is coming to us. Watch out. Get ready. God is on the way.

William H. Willimon is professor of the practice of Christian ministry at Duke Divinity School and a retired United Methodist Church bishop. A widely published author, preacher, and teacher of preachers, Willimon has written more than eighty books, many of which have been translated into many languages and have sold over a million copies. He is the author of The Gospel for the Person Who Has Everything, Leading with the Sermon: Preaching as Leadership (Fortress Press), and Aging: Growing Old in the Church (Baker Academic), among others. 

For twenty years Willimon served as dean of Duke Chapel and professor of Christian ministry at Duke Divinity School. He has served congregations in Georgia and South and North Carolina and is a retired bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church.