Most weeks, I publish several posts on this site. I write articles on biblical preaching, pastoral ministry, and church life. I record interviews with pastors and other spiritual leaders. I post The On Preaching Podcast episodes. And I share articles written by others in my Saturday Shout-Outs. Thank you for reading my blog this year. I hope you have found helpful resources here. Here are some of the most viewed and best responded to posts from my blog site in 2016. Enjoy! Articles Shooing Flies In The Pulpit.       2.  Be A Man And Preach.      3. Faithful Preachers Are Forgetful Preachers.     ...

Happy birthday! It’s your special day. A party is thrown in your honor. Your family and friends are all there. The music is playing. The food is delicious. The atmosphere is festive. But wait! If this is such a wonderful party, why are you sitting in the corner by yourself? Why is your countenance so sad? Why are you not enjoying yourself? Oh, I get it. It’s your party. But no one is paying you any attention. No one brought you a card or gift. There is no birthday cake. The music is playing, but there is no birthday song....

As I prepared for my wedding day, I asked my married friends what to expect. Without fail, they all had one prediction: You are going to cry! This was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I have no problem with men crying. In fact, I am a passionate man who is prone to shed tears at moments of sorrow or joy.  I just did not believe it would happen at my wedding. I was cool, calm, and collected, as the big day neared. Whatever my response, I did not expect it to include tears.  Then it happened...  The...

What should I preach this Christmas? Pastors wrestle with this question every year. Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter celebrate the main events of the Christian faith. These holidays spotlight historical facts that establish the foundation of Christian truth. It is often claimed that the major religions of the world essential teach the same thing. That claim is categorically false. And you do not need to be a scholar in theology or an expect apology to explain the uniqueness of the Christian message. You only need to have a biblical understanding of what happened on Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter! Considering...

This past weekend, we celebrated eight years as pastor and people at the Shiloh Church in Jacksonville, Florida. In the spring of 2008, I was invited to fill the pulpit one Sunday. I did not view that Sunday as any more than another date on my list of speaking engagements for the year. Three months later, the Shiloh Church overwhelming voted to extend a call to me to be its next pastor. On the second Sunday in November, I was installed as the new pastor of the church. Boy, how time flies! On one hand, it does not seem like...

It was Sunday night, June 11, 1989. I was asleep in the guest room of the late Dr. Roy Allen of the Chapel Hill Baptist Church in Detroit. My rest was pleasantly interrupted, however, when Pastor Allen knocked on the door to tell me my father was on the phone. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was to talk to my dad. He had been hospitalized the previous week. It was the first and only time in my life that my father was ever admitted into the hospital. I was concerned about him. And I missed him....