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...

“So, how did you get from Los Angeles to Jacksonville?” I am regularly asked this question. I give the same answer each time: “The Lord dragged me to Jacksonville kicking and screaming.” This is no dig at Jacksonville or the church I serve. It is an honest statement about how my pastoral transition to Jacksonville took place in 2008. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In a real sense, I was born and raised in a local church there. My father pastored the congregation for 40 years. More than a year after his death, I was selected to...

  I was a preacher’s kid. My father was the pastor of the church. My mother was the Minister of Music. Both made a tremendous impact on my life, faith, and ministry. My father taught me the scriptures. My mother taught me the songs of the church. I have always had a passion to sing. But I downplayed it most of the years. I was called to preach. And my father spoke negatively against “singing preachers.” He assumed that preachers sing when they don’t have anything to say. But my mother consistently encouraged me to pursue music. Throughout my two...

November 5, 1990. I ditched school that Monday morning. I had a funeral to preach. For the first half of the year, I preached the 11:00 AM service at my father’s church on first Sundays. But the first Sunday in August was the last time. I preached a sermon that Sunday, entitled, “Waited Time On God Is Never Wasted Time” (Job 14:14).  In a meeting after the service, it was decided that I should not be allowed to preach any more until after the church called a new pastor. I was also asked to meet with pulpit committee. The committee...

No one comes from nowhere. We are all the product of those who have forged their faith in us. This is my testimony. My pulpit and pastoral ministry has been nurtured over the years by good and godly influences. Some I have known personally and intimately. Others I have only known vicariously. But I thank God for those all those who have shaped my biblical conviction, philosophy of ministry, and commitment to Bible exposition. The following video about my pulpit influences was prepared for our 2015 Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching conference. Of course, this list is not exhaustive. In...

Do you know about my sermon email list? In the right column of this page, you can sign up for the HBC2 email list. By subscribing to the list, you will get blog articles, ministry updates, and special discounts. You will also be the first to know about free resources. Each week, those on the email list receive a complete sermon manuscript from a sermon I preached. You can read the manuscripts devotionally. Or you can use them to spark ideas for your own sermon preparation. At this point, we have published more than a year’s worth of sermon manuscripts. Our...

There two big days in my life. I do not remember the date of the first one. It was a Saturday night. My parents sent me to bed. Church was in the morning. But I couldn’t sleep. Throughout the night, I wrestled with the implications of the gospel my father preached and my mother sang. At some point during the night – or morning – I surrendered my life to Christ. I was only six years old. But that dateless night was real to me. I believed that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And I knew that...

I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book, The Difference Jesus Makes: Trusting Him in Every Situation (Moody Publishers). I am excited about this book for several reasons. First of all, this book simply retells and explains Bible stories. I believe we need more good books on Christian doctrine. But the Bible most often teaches truth through stories, not systems. Our generation suffers from biblical illiteracy. And I believe a reintroduction to the stories of the Bible is a big step toward revival. Furthermore, the stories in The Difference Jesus Makes are about the Lord Jesus Christ....

Today, the Lord has blessed me to see my 40th birthday. I am in shock that I am now 40. Where in the world did the time go? Let me think about it… I have been following Jesus for 34 years. I have been preaching the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ for 29 years. I have been pastoring God’s people for 23 years. I have been married for more than 14 years. I have been a father for 13 years. Yep. I guess 40 years makes sense, after all. The Lord has been good to me....

There is a note circulating on Facebook, in which friends ask one another to list twenty-five random things about themselves. I have been “tagged” with these notes. And I have enjoyed reading them. But I had no intention of writing a list myself. But without much deliberation, I opened a new Word document and began to type. Soon a list emerged. Here are twenty-five random things about me: 1.    H.B. is not my initials. That’s my name. For real. My name is H.B. Charles Jr. It’s on my birth certificate, driver’s license, and everything else. My father did it to...

Lido and I made it safely to Jacksonville yesterday afternoon. Pastor Letson took us to the house. And I prepared myself for worship. An hour or so later, I drove myself to church for the first time. If Jacksonville's rush hour was any reflection of what I experienced last night, driving here will be a breeze in comparison to Los Angeles. I went down to the main auditorium about thirty minutes for the worship service to check on something. I went another route back to the study and got lost. Thankfully, I bumped into one of the staff members in...