Thanks for reading my blog. Saturday Shout-Outs is my weekly bulletin board of things I find interesting and helpful. You can sign-up for email updates of future post in the side panel.   Happy Mother's Day to my wife, Crystal! I love you! Thank you for everything you do for me and our three Terrorists... I mean, children.   A big shout-out to Dr. Fred Luter for the opportunity to preach at the great Franklin Avenue Baptist Church this week. What a pastor! What a church! What a meeting! Check out this week's post: Three Keys to Effective Sermon Preparation...

“So what do you do for a living?” I have a new answer to that question: “I write sermons.” Occasionally, an alert listener will reply, “You only write sermons? Do you preach them?” Then I give the punchline. “Sure, I do. But it’s hard to remember that part. As soon as the sermon is over, I have to start writing the next one!” That’s the life of a pastor. We have the joyful burden of weekly preparation. To keep your head about water and become effective you have to learn to hack the process. You need a system for Bible...

My new book came out this week, entitled, On Preaching. I hope you will pick up a copy. And thanks to all of you who have already bought it. I pray you find it helpful! Shout-out to the Antioch District of St. Louis for the opportunity to preach during your revival service this week! I hope to see you at the National Conference on Preaching in Atlanta (May 13-15). I also hope to see you at the Moody Pastors Conference in Chicago this month. I am scheduled to speak Wednesday evening, May 21. Registration is open for the Cutting It Straight...

Today is the National Day of Prayer. We are blessed to live in the United States of the America. In fact, God has so smiled on us that it is impossible to count our blessings. Yet these are critical times. Many good changes are taking place. But there are disturbing trends that mark a deliberate and obvious turn from God. America is not, and has never been, “a Christian nation.” There is no such thing. The church is a sign, herald, and foretaste of God’s present-but-not-yet kingdom, not any nation. Yet there was a day when this nation respected God's...

I am excited about the release of my new book, On Preaching: Personal & Pastoral Insights for the Preparation & Practice of Preaching. (Moody Publishers. Official release date: May 1, 2014). This is my second book, the first being It Happens After Prayer. I wrote this book without knowing it. Desiring to grow in my preaching, I began to read and think about preaching. I also started writing brief articles that summarized my views on various practical areas of sermon preparation and pulpit work. I was more than fifteen articles into the process before it dawned on me that these collected...

Every workman needs tools. It does not matter the nature of the work. He can be a carpenter that needs a hammer and nails. Or she can be a computer programmer that needs a laptop and software. The truth still applies whatever the task. No laborer can do his or her work without good tools. The same goes for preachers. If you are going to be a faithful expositor of the scriptures, you need to learn and practice the principles of Bible interpretation and sermon preparation. But you cannot practice the principles without the necessary tools. My father had a...

It was a joy to participate in the 70th annual Simultaneous Revival in Oklahoma City this week. My father used to preach this meeting. And I first preached it when I was 16-years-old. Thanks to Pastor John Reed and the Fairview Baptist Church. Registration is open for the Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference that will take place at the Shiloh Church in Jacksonville, September 24-26, 2014. I pray this event becomes a moment that increases the tribe of faithful, Bible preachers and teachers. And I hope to see you there! My new book, On Preaching, will be released on May 1....

We had a wonderful celebration of Easter at Shiloh Church yesterday! A big shout-out to our Pastor of Worship & Arts, Joe Pace, planned and led our Holy Week observances. And he went all out for Easter. Thanks Pastor Joe for your wise planning, hard work, and spiritual leadership! A very special thanks to all the Shiloh volunteers for your labor of love this week. Your service enabled many to worship freely, hear the gospel, and meet Jesus for the first time! I am very proud of you and grateful of your partnership in the gospel. You make it happen! Our worship...

I heard Dr. A. Louis Patterson Jr. preach for the first time in the late-night service at the National Baptist Convention in Los Angeles in 1990. These services are typically when the major whoopers preach. But Dr. Patterson simply stood and explained the story of the woman with the issue of blood and sat down. It left a deep impression on me. I later visited a church and stopped by their tape booth after the service. There was a tape by A. Louis Patterson. I bought it and listened to it. From that moment, Dr. Patterson became my mentor from...

Holy Week is here, which celebrates the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, declaring himself to be the King of the Jews. It leads up to Good Friday, when Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. It climaxes with Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is no ordinary week. It is the main event of Christianity. Of course, Christmas is special. But the fact that Jesus was born and lived on earth means nothing...

Saturday Shout-Outs is my weekly bulletin board of news and notes and ministry links. Thanks for reading. Congratulations to Dr. Maurice Watson for 10 years of pastoral leadership of the Beulahland Bible Church! I hope you will join us for the Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference in Jacksonville (September 24-26, 2014). Cutting it Straight 2. </p>My new book is less than a month from its release date: "On Preaching."  I am teaching a series on the relating to God the Holy Spirit in our Midweek Service at the Shiloh Church. And I have been writing a series of summaries...

I want to learn photography. I also want to create and edit videos. So I started investigating cameras. I asked our church’s media director for advice, who recommended several camera options. I was grateful for his help. But I left his office thinking this was a major investment I should make carefully. About twenty minutes later, Marcellus walked into my study with his iPhone in hand, attached to a small tripod to show me how my iPhone could do what I wanted without me spending any money. I was prepared to spend hundreds of dollars for functionality I had in...