For you John Ortberg fans in the audience, a selection of sermons from the pastor who built up Menlo (Park Presbyterian) Church before him. . . .

Walt Gerber. The Best Is Yet to Come: Sermons Reflecting the Gift of Grace. 400p., $16.99, Deep River Books.

Countless people have said of Walt Gerber that it was from him they “first heard grace preached.” Walt, a popular pastor in the heart of Silicon Valley, loved Jesus, prayer, people, and the Bible, and this shows in every one of these sixty sermons, prayerfully chosen from among the hundreds he gave.

Walt was a Silicon Valley titan of the most unassuming kind. He had no website. No blog. No Twitter. No social media of any kind. He never published a book or developed a technology. But as senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church for twenty-eight years, Walt was a titan of grace. He had a way of speaking, like no one else, directly to listeners’ hearts through his sermons. Caring, relational, and compassionate, Walt was more concerned about “the ultimate heresy of making God boring,” as he put it, than with church growth. But the church did grow under him—from 2,000 members in 1974, to 5,500 members in 2002. People flocked to hear Walt present his God as he knew him . . . full of love, grace, kindness, and fun.

For each sermon, relevant Scriptures and discussion questions are provided, making this book ideal for personal devotions or small-group study.