We had a great weekend at the Shiloh Church as we celebrated our 138th church anniversary! Praise God for his faithfulness in sustaining the witness and ministry of this great congregation in Jacksonville for more than a century! And our dreams are even greater than our memories! Special thanks to our church staff for organizing the events of the weekend. I am glad to have you on our team and appreciate all you do! Likewise, thanks to all of our volunteers for serving so diligently this weekend. You make it happen! Saturday, we had a church picnic on the grounds....

Thanks for reading my blog. You can sign up for email updates under the picture to the left. Thanks to all who have picked up my new book, It Happens After Prayer. May it motivate you to pray! Thanks for your comments on my post: A Wake Up Call for Gospel Artists. I hope it starts an long-overdue conversation. A shout-out to Michael Diduit for the opportunity to speak at the National Conference on Preaching 2013 in Charlotte. By the way, Don't miss the National Conference on Preaching 2014 in Atlanta. Shout-out to Pastor Alexis Thomas for the opportunity to speak...

I love Gospel Music. Traditional. Contemporary. Praise & worship. Choirs. Groups. Solo artists. Old and new. From Rev. So-and-So Presents… albums of the 80s to today’s Bishop So-and-So Presents… albums. I have even started to listen to some quartet and Christian hip-hop. I love music. And I especially love music that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. But my true love for Gospel Music has broken my heart. In two ways… First, I am grieved by the excessive commercialism of contemporary Gospel Music. I can cite various examples of this illicit love affair with the world. But there is an explicit...

Happy Mother's Day! A Special Happy Mother's Day to my wife, Crystal, and to my mother, Ellen. We had a great day of worship at the Shiloh Church today. Grateful for all of our guests today. I even got to meet BrothaRollins' parents. Way cool. Praise God for the five persons who were baptized today. Our Genesis Choir (children) sang today. I preached "God's Graffiti" from Daniel 5, continuing my series through Daniel. I outlined the chapter in four movements:  The Foolish Celebration (Belshazzar) The Party Crasher (God) The Uninvited Guests (Daniel) The Tragic Conclusion (Dairus) I stole this sermon...

Saturday Shout-Outs is my weekly bulletin board of things I have found interesting over the course of the week.  Happy Mother's Day! Thanks for reading my blog this week. You can sign up for free email updates of future posts under the picture to the left. A big shout-out to Tim Challies for his review of It Happens After Prayer. Thanks to George Hurtt, Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, and my friends in Los Angeles who warmly received me during my book tour there this week. Shout-Out to Pastor L.A. Kessee and the Bethany Church of Los Angeles for the opportunity...

“People have short attention spans. So you really do long series through books anymore. People will check out on you after four to six sermons.” This authoritative claim is simply not true. People are hungry for the word of God. Consecutive exposition both satisfies people’s hunger for scripture and shapes it. Expository preaching is an acquired taste. Before people get it they don’t know what they are missing. But when they get it they don’t want anything else. Consecutive exposition is not the only way to preach faithfully. Jesus did not preach that way. Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers,...

My pastor rebuked me yesterday. We spent most of the phone conversation catching up. And we exchanged prayer requests for upcoming speaking engagements. Then Pas brought up an event I preached not too long ago. He told me he was proud of me. He also asked me about my observations of the event. I answered the same way I answer anyone who asks me about it. "That's not my crowd," I said. Pas interrupted me. He firmly told me that he did not ever want to hear me say that again. He knew what I meant by the statement. And...

It was a long, good weekend at the Shiloh Church. Our Saturday morning men’s Bible study was great. Kingdom Man is challenging us. Our Kingdom-Focused Prayer Meeting was very moving. Saturday afternoon, we a mass wedding for 14 live-in couples that made the step of faith to get married. Our church adopted them. We counseled them for more than six weeks. And we donated everything for the couples. It was a great experience. Please continue to pray for these couples. Shiloh, thanks for your prayers, generosity, and service. You make it happen! Sunday morning, we celebrated the Lord’s Table in both...

Thanks for reading my blog this week. You can sign up for email updates of future posts under the picture to the left. Thanks to all who have purchased my new book, It Happens After Prayer. I hope it motivates you to pray with confidence in the word of God. Praying for the youth of Shiloh Church who are participating in a purity conference this weekend. Shout-out to the members of Shiloh for the ways you have given and served to make today a special day for the couples participating in our Mass Wedding. Shout-out to Pastor Anthony Maclin for...

Today is the release of my new book, It Happens After Prayer. I have had the privilege to contribute to several books. But this is the first, complete work that I have written. When the door opened for me to publish, there were several topics that I was eager to write about. As we discussed potential projects, I was thinking a lot about prayer and seeking to strengthen my own prayer life. And I was preaching and teaching on prayer every time I had the chance. It was in my system. But I did not think about the possibility of...

It has been a great weekend of fellowship, service, and worship. Saturday was our Make A Difference Day at Shiloh. On MADD we blitz our community with works of service to show the love of Christ. Our Clothes Closet gave away clothes. We fed the homeless. Our Men did yard work for seniors. Our Car Care Ministry did free repairs. Our youth washed more than a hundred cars for free. Our Soul Winning Action Team (SWAT) shared the gospel. And that's was just on our campus! It doesn't include the over works our members did across our city. God be...

Thanks for reading my blog this week. I hope you found something helpful here. You can sign up for email updates under the picture to the left. My new book, It Happens After Prayer, was released early. Thanks for all who have purchased the book. I hope it encourages you to pray with faith, hope, and joy. I posted my sermon on Matthew 19:3-10: "Jesus' Answer to the Question of Divorce"  Shout-out to Pastor Carl Livingston and the Walnut Grove Baptist Church of Clarksville, TN. Thanks for the opportunity to preach this past Sunday night through Tuesday. Book Recommendation: Pick...