Happy Labor Day! The Lord be with you today. This is a late post from this weekend. My site went down Saturday. So you get Labor Day Shout-Outs today. Enjoy! Yesterday, I continued my Ephesians series with a message entitled, "Be Imitators of God" (Ephesians 5:1-6). What does it take to be imitators of God? I. Walk in Love (5:1-2). A. Imitate the Love of God the Father (v. 1) B. Walk in the Love of God the Son (v. 2) II. Say No to Defiling Sins (5:3-4). A. Abstain from immoral behavior (v. 3) B. Abstain from filthy language (v....

The following is a guest post by Joe Pace who is the Pastor of Worship & Arts at the Shiloh Church, where I serve as Pastor-Teacher. WHAT’S THE WORD ON WORSHIP? Colossians 3:16 tells us that there is an inextricable link between the preaching/teaching ministry and music ministry in our worship. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” To be even more clear: YOU JUST CAN’T WORSHIP WITHOUT THE WORD!! [Tweet "YOU JUST CAN’T WORSHIP WITHOUT THE WORD!!"]...

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL LIST IN THE RIGHT COLUMN OF THIS PAGE TO RECEIVE A FREE WEEKLY SERMON MANUSCRIPT. A big shout-out to my friend, Adron Robinson, for the opportunity to preach this week at the Hillcrest Baptist Church in Chicago. The Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference is less than only a few weeks away – September 22-24, 2015. This meeting is to train, promote, and model expository preaching. There will also be special tracks for Youth Ministry and Worship & Arts. It should be three enriching days of training, fellowship, and worship. I hope to...

      The following is a guest post by Cameron Triggs who is the Pastor of Youth & Young Adults of the Shiloh Church, where I serve as Pastor-Teacher. He blogs at camtriggs.com. Preaching Truth To Youth There is little question that many of today’s youth are increasingly disengaged from church, under engaged with the Gospel, and essentially biblically illiterate. The blogs, debates, and statistics about these continue to wage war but the greatest consensus from the ground states we have a real battle on our hands concerning millennials and the upcoming generation. In "You Lost Me" by Dave Kinnaman he...

We are now one month away from the Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference. It will meet September 22-24, 2015, at the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville (FL), where I serve as pastor-teacher. The goal of this conference is to train, model, and promote faithful Bible exposition in preaching and teaching. What is expositional preaching? Expositional preaching is essentially preaching in which the point of the sermon is based on and in alignment with the point of the scripture text. Something drives every sermon. Expository preaching is text-driven preaching. The expository sermon explains the meaning of the text and...

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL LIST IN THE RIGHT COLUMN OF THIS PAGE TO RECEIVE A FREE WEEKLY SERMON MANUSCRIPT.  Shout-out to Pastor Pedro S. Williams for the opportunity to preach at the Jericho Baptist Church this week in the Turks and Caicos. Today is exactly one month before the start of the Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference - September 22-24, 2015. This meeting is to train, promote, and model expository preaching. There will also be special tracks for Youth Ministry and Worship & Arts. It should be three enriching days of training, fellowship, and worship. I hope to...

The following is a guest post written by DA Horton, who is a church planter and published author. Additional information on DA can be found at dahorton.com. I’ve read more articles and studies regarding the Millennial generation than I care to admit. It seems as if Corporate America, Marketing Firms, and colleges are all vying for the attention and dollars of this generation. All the while, the assumption within the Body of Christ is local churches need to overhaul their entire paradigm of ministry to attract millennials. To level the playing field, let me take a moment to identify just...

I have two fundamental goals for every sermon I preach. First of all, I strive to be faithful to the text of scripture. Likewise, I strive to be clear in my presentation of the message. I was in a recent conversation with a fellow pastor about these pulpit goals. He agreed with my philosophy. Then added, "Well, you know there are only three types of preachers..." After he named the three types of preachers, I asked him to repeat them slowly. He did. Then I asked my new friend for permission to share them. He graciously consented. What are the three types of preachers? Some preachers...

My local theater has a new “Silence Your Cell Phones” announcement. It states that you came to the theater to enjoy what is on the big screen. And you should not allow the little screen on your cell phone to make you forget what you came to see on the big screen. This is not the time for selfies, text messages, or social media. It is time to drink a cola, eat a tub of popcorn, and enjoy the happenings on the big screen in front of you. Movies are for entertainment. It may be a comedy, drama, horror, historical,...

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL LIST TO THE RIGHT OF THIS PAGE TO RECEIVE A FREE WEEKLY SERMON MANUSCRIPT.  Shout-out to Pastor Gary Jones and the Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Dothan, Alabama, for a warm night of worship and fellowship! It was a joy for the Shiloh Church to worship with Pastor Gary Williams and the First Church Hopewell this week. A big shout-out to Dr. Steve Gaines for the opportunity to preach "Awesome August" at the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis this week. What a church! The Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference is about a month...

The following is a guest post written by Kevin Smith, Teaching Pastor at the Highview Baptist Church and preaching professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary - both in Louisville, Kentucky. Some preachers are not effective because they are unprepared. Faithful, biblical preaching is hard work, which requires preparation. Part (not all) of that preparation involves studying and learning. We must study the Word, even as we study ourselves for the purpose of greater godliness (1 Timothy 4:16). We must study the congregation, in order that we may properly feed them the Word of God (1 Peter 5:2). We must...

YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL LIST TO THE RIGHT OF THIS PAGE TO RECEIVE A FREE WEEKLY SERMON MANUSCRIPT. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the Send North America Conference in Nashville this week. I missed a great meeting. My friend, Carlos Kelly, is the new Pastor of the Beulahland Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia. He succeeded Dr. Maurice Watson. It was a joy to this week how the Lord continues to bless this congregation. Shout-out to the Thomas Dorsey Convention of Choirs for the opportunity to give one of the morning messages during their...