My father, H.B. Charles Sr., led the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles for four decades. He passed away in 1989. I was sixteen-years-old. Mt. Sinai met on November 5, 1990, to select a new pastor. E.V. Hill Sr., Pastor of the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, moderated the church meeting. I attended the meeting to cast my vote. In the meeting, I was nominated from the flood and the congregation voted me to be its new pastor. I was a seventeen-year-old senior at Los Angeles High School. E.V. Hill returned to preach my pastoral...

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...

This past weekend, I was scheduled to fly home to Los Angeles to join the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in celebrating 75 years of Christian witness and ministry. But flight delays and bad weather prevented me from even leaving Jacksonville. I was greatly disappointed. I was grateful for the invitation to speak at the anniversary banquet and looking forward to the opportunity to preach to the Mt. Sinai family I preached my first sermon at Mt. Sinai, as an 11-year-old boy. I preached every year after that, as an associate minister under my father. Then I preached to the...

John A. Reed Jr. has led the Fairview Missionary Baptist Church of Oklahoma City for more than fifty years. It is his first and only pastorate. Dr. Reed is also a local community and national denominational leader. When I was a boy, Pastor Reed was “Uncle John” to me, as he and my father were close friends. My father preached for Fairview during the OKC Simultaneous Revival each year. Pastor Reed preached at Mt. Sinai for our annual Homecoming Services each year. I was flying home from preaching in Detroit the day my father died. John Reed was flying home...

My father was H.B. Charles Sr. He pastored the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles for 40 years, until his death in 1989. All I saw my father do was serve the church. Whether I became a preacher or not, my father’s example taught me to associate Christianity with serving others. The Lord called me to preach as a boy. I was 11-years-old when I preached my first sermon. By my teens, I was basically preaching every week. I was 16-years-old when my father died. A year and a half later, I was called to succeed my father...

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...

The Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church of Los Angeles celebrates 72 years of Christian witness today. And I celebrate with Mt. Sinai today, even though I am on the other side of the country. My personal, spiritual, and ministerial roots are deep in the soil of Mt. Sinai. My father - H.B. Charles, Sr. – was the second pastor of Mt. Sinai. He led the church for more than 40 years. It was the only thing I ever saw my father do. My mother was both the church secretary and minister of music at Mt. Sinai. I still have family...

November 5, 1990. This is a date indelibly sketched in my heart and mind. It was a Monday evening. The congregation at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles gathered to select a new pastor. My father, H.B. Charles, Sr., served the church for four decades. Eighteen months later, the church was ready to call a new pastor. I had no plans of attending this meeting. I thought it would be too difficult to sit through a meeting where a new man would be called to the church my father served for so long. But I changed my mind...

Wednesday night, I preached for Pastor Welton Pleasant at the Christ Second Baptist Church of Long Beach, CA. Christ Second Baptist Church is celebrating its 105th church anniversary this month. Pastor Pleasant, whom I have known for some years, invited me in honor of my father, who pastored the church for ten years, before he was called to Mt. Sinai in Los Angeles. I remember the first time I preached at Christ Second Baptist. I was 16-years-old boy preacher. It was not long after my father had died. Members greeted me and told me how much I reminded them of...

The Progressive National Baptist Convention is meeting this week in Memphis. The PNBC was established in the early 1960s, during the Civil Rights Movement. Black Baptists were divided on the role the church should play in the struggle. Those who supported the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr. established a new, "progressive" convention. My father was a part of this movement. He was also a part of the group that established the Progressive Convention in California. This picture is the cover page of a newsletter from my father's presidency of the Constitutional Baptist Convention of California and Nevada dated April...

I really enjoyed my Father's Day yesterday. And we had a great day of worship at Shiloh. 23 years ago, the Lord took my father from labor to refreshment. But I am still benefiting from the 16 years I was privilege to have Dr. H.B. Charles, Sr. in my life. I was not feeling well for a good stretch of last week Thanks for your prayers and expressions of concern. Praise God for the one who was baptized yesterday. I am grateful for all of the guests who joined us for worship yesterday. Our women's chorus sung yesterday. Good thing....

Tomorrow - Father's Day - will mark 23 years to the day since my father died. The past several years, Father's Day has been a downer for me. My wife and children have been kind, generous, and understanding. I appreciate it. But I have missed my dad around this time. I also think that being on the other side of the country, disconnected from my roots in Los Angeles, has exasperated my feelings of sadness. This year is different. I approach this coming Father's Day with gratitude, rather than grief. The Lord blessed me to have a great dad. I...