My father let me preach his early worship service one Sunday. I don’t remember what I preached. But I am sure it was nothing special. I can only hope it was a boy preacher’s best effort to preach faithfully. After the service, I was passing through the church lobby, when I received an unlikely compliment. A brother stopped me and said, “Good job this morning, Junior. You are turning into a great preacher. You are going to be better than the old man in a minute.” I was just a boy. But I wasn’t crazy. I knew what this brother...

Power to Reach Your Full Potential (Hebrews 13:20-21)

The Imperatives of God-Centered Worship (Psalm 150)

It Pays To Give (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

The Bottom Line of Christian Ministry (2 Timothy 2:15)

Thanks for reading my blog. Saturday Shout-Outs is my weekly bulletin board. Enjoy!  Happy Birthday to my Son, H.B. Charles Jr.  My new book, The Difference Jesus Makes, is now available. Preaching Today Interview: The Authentic Preacher: H.B. Charles Jr.  Trevi Wax: Know Your Southern Baptists: H.B. Charles Jr. (CORRECTION: I attended The Master's Seminary & Gordon-Conwell. I do not have any earned degrees). Check out the latest episode of The On Preaching Podcast: Preparing Yourself To Preach Make sure you check out the newest Word & Worship with Joe Pace & HBC2. Hope to see you October 28-30 at the 2014...

This is episode #011 of The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. In this episode, we will talk about the importance of preparing yourself to be a faithful preacher of the word of God. Here are five ways to prepare yourself to preach...  Practice spiritual devotions. Establish your doctrinal convictions. Maintain a pastor's heart. Develop a personal study system. Choose a sermon text. Questions So what do you think? Have you prepared yourself to preach? What do you think about the advice I have given in this podcast? What should you work...

Welcome to the 2nd installment of our new feature called Word & Worship. While I truly believe that “The heart of Christian worship is the authentic preaching of the Word of God.”—Dr. Al Mohler, Colossians 3:16 tells us that there is an undeniable link between the preaching/teaching ministry and music ministry in our worship.  Our goal through these specific posts is to offer biblical guidance and practical help in dealing with the relationship between music and preaching in corporate worship. In this installment, Pastor Joe Pace and I discuss the challenges with what have, in some cases, become behavioral norms...

The 25th annual WHW Expository Preaching & Teaching Conference is taking place this week in Los Angeles. This conference means a lot to me, for several reasons. First of all, the WHW Conference taught me principles of Bible study that I still use to this day. When I went to the first WHW Conference, I was already convinced that expository preaching was the most faithful way to handle the scriptures. But this conference taught me practical steps for studying words, grammar, context, and culture. Over the years, this conference has been greatly used to help many preachers and teachers rightly...

The Freedom of Forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35)

My secretary told me a new member wanted a meeting. His name was Phil. USC students from the campus InterVarsity ministry had started attending our church. Some joined. Phil was one of them. I was glad to have the young people in our church. But these meetings were getting on my nerves. They meetings were the same. The young person told me what he or she liked about the church. Then they told me the things that needed to change if they were to be comfortable enough to stay. It felt like they viewed my congregation as a project to...

Living With Heavenly Priorities (Colossians 3:1-4)