When I meet new people, initial conversations often raise the same questions. It begins with my name. Yes, my name is H.B. No, it does not stand for anything. I don’t know. My father did it to me, and I did it to my son. The next set of questions is about the church I serve. The detail that typically captures attention is that the church I serve is in Florida. The conversation turns to whatever the person thinks about Florida, good or bad. Then I am asked if I was raised in Florida. I answer that I have lived...

   Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. - 2 Timothy 2:15   Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference exists to train, model, and promote expositional preaching. Expository preaching is that preaching in which the point of the sermon is rooted in, is in alignment with, and flows out of the selected scripture. It is preaching in which the sermon in shaped by the content and intent of the sermon text. In short, expositional preaching is biblical preaching Expository preaching...

Each year, during the Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference, we share a tribute video about a preacher who should be known and remembered. This year, our tribute video featured my father, the Rev. H.B. Charles Sr. My father was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. After his education, he relocated to the West Coast. He served the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles for forty-years, until his death in 1989. My father led the Mt. Sinai Church during the critical years of the Civil Rights movement. He was active in community matters in Los Angeles, being a friend of...

  Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison – that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. – Colossians 4:2-4   This week (September 18-20, 2018), the Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference will take place at the Shiloh Church in Jacksonville (FL), where I am privileged to serve as pastor-teacher. This is the fifth year of Cutting It Straight....

  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handing the word of truth. – 2 Timothy 2:15   Cutting It Straight | September 18-20, 2018 | Jacksonville, FL    More than five years ago, several friends and I sat up discussing our burden for biblical preaching. Preachers have many conversations like this, trying to fix all of the problems of the world. Well, our conversation did not fix the world. But that conversation did conceive the Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference. There are many good...