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...

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...

This week I taught and preached at the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church of Los Angeles, where George E. Hurtt is the pastor. The meeting was a part of the congregation's 71st anniversary celebration. I taught a class on expository preaching and was the main speaker for the evening services. My personal and spiritual roots are in the soil of this congregation. My Father - H.B. Charles, Sr. - led this congregation for more than four decades. All I saw my father do was serve this church. I met Christ and was baptized in this church. I was called to...

Twenty-two years ago today, the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church of Los Angeles took a chance on a seventeen-year-old boy preacher. It was a Monday night. November 5, 1990. It was about eighteen months after the former pastor, my father, died. The church gathered to select its third pastor. For the record, the church did not meet that night with to select a high-schooler as its new pastor. I was not on the agenda that night. After a yearlong search, the pulpit committee presented three names for the church to consider. (I was not one of them.) And they would...

This weekend, the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church of Los Angeles celebrated 70 years of Christian witness and ministry. The Rev. J.D. Richardson organized Mt Sinai. He led the congregation for six years. The second pastor of Mt. Sinai was my father – Dr. H.B. Charles, Sr. He led the congregation for more than forty years. He was an outstanding preacher, charismatic leader, and passionate civil rights advocate. The congregation grew tremendously under my father's leadership. It also experienced various ups-and-downs. Yet the congregation remained strong through various transitions. I was introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ during my father's...

I'll give you one guess who that handsome young man to the left is. Before I go any further, let me answer your burning question: Is that a Jheri Curl? Answer: Absolutely not! I only use juices and berries on my hair. Bonus Q&A: Yes, those are Gazelle glasses I am wearing. What you know about that?!?! This is a newspaper clip I found recently in a book. It is from local church newspaper in Los Angeles called the A.C.C. (R.I.P.) I was just eighteen-years-old. It is an advertisement for my first pastoral anniversary celebration at the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist...

I am on my way to Los Angeles to speak for three night at the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, where George Hurtt is the pastor. Yesterday, the Mt. Sinai congregation celebrated its 67th church anniversary. My brother, Kevin Willis, who pastors the New Life in Christ Church in Mississippi, was their guest speaker. The celebration continues tonight with three nights of worship and the ministry of the word. I am honored to have been excited by Pastor Hurtt to be the guest speaker for this meeting. Pastor Hurtt is one of my best friends. And Mt. Sinai is the...

If the Lord spares me, tomorrow will be a really long day for me. I trust it will be a good day. But it will be a long day, nonetheless. I plan to close out my series on Luke 15, "Lost People Matter to God," in both of the morning worship services at Shiloh. The past two weeks I have preached on the parable of the prodigal son - one week on the lovesick father, one week on the wayward son. This Lord's Day, I intend to focus on the elder brother. I have labeled the message, simply, "Lessons from...

Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles is still updating its website. But they have already made a great improvement. The sermons of George E. Hurtt, the new pastor of MSMBC, are now online and downloadable for free. Since the last Sunday in September, George has been preaching from the book Psalms. I encourage you to take advantage of MSMBC's generosity and take a listen to George's sermons. You will be greatly blessed. click here for to access George's messages. Continue to pray for George and the entire leadership and membership of Mt. Sinai.

Last night, I had one of the most unique, special experiences of my life. I was invited by the Church Council members of Mt. Sinai - the church that I served for almost 18 years - to return to Los Angeles and moderate one more church meeting. In this meeting, the Church Council, functioning as the pastoral search committee for the congregation, unanimously recommended George E. Hurtt - the man who has served as my pastoral assistant the past several years - to be the next senior pastor of MSMBC. And the congregation, in a brief, prayerful, and joy-filled meeting,...

Thank you for praying for me, my family, and Mt Sinai this weekend. The Lord blessed us. It was a long, busy, special weekend. There was a lot of laughter. A lot of tears. A lot of hugs. A lot of pictures. And a lot of farewells. Not good byes. Just farewell for now. This week, my family and I will be moving to Jacksonville, Florida, to begin a in earnest my new pastorate at the Shiloh Church. But I do not believe I would be able to making this transition and follow the Lord's leading to this new assignment...