The coronavirus is challenging the creativity of preachers as the pandemic continues to keep many churches in virtual spaces. Months of speaking into camera lenses, laptop screens or empty sanctuaries week after week leaves some clergy feeling deprived of a…
New book explores pain of preaching after a suicide in the congregation
In January 2009, I sat down at my desk to think about the upcoming season of Lent. I was the pastor at Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn. I had been there for just over two years but was the…
Maybe we’ll just keep on preaching these five sermons
In 20 years, my wife and I have preached about 950 sermons from the pulpit of Park Road Baptist Church. (Amy and I have been co-pastors in Charlotte since 2000.) We’re both manuscript preachers, and we try to hold a…
There’s a double standard on pastors and politics
Imagine a prominent white Baptist pastor taking to cable news to make a case for Joe Biden and then appearing at rallies to campaign for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. All hell would break loose. And that pastor would soon…
Pastors must preach about COVID-19, Younger says
Preachers must not avoid preaching about the pain of the COVID-19 crisis, according to a prominent Baptist pastor who serves in New York City, one of the hardest-hit areas of the nation.
Is our gospel no longer the gospel of the early church?
My fear today is that the gospel being preached from Baptist pulpits is all too often an appeal to self-interest rather than to conscience. When the gospel of God’s grace comes home to the human heart, it does not appeal to our self-interests but rather to our sense of sin.
A radical idea for preaching: sincerity
What if preachers quit trying to be clever or to control outcomes and instead simply led with sincere vulnerability? It would require trusting the congregation to receive you with kindness and, for your part, a self-compassion for your own tenderness.
Shaming pastors is not the way to respond to two more mass shootings
In the aftermath of mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, I read and heard exhortations along these lines: “If your pastor does not call out white supremacy and gun violence tomorrow in worship, it’s time to find another church.” Please, can we stop doing this?
I’m embarrassed by American Christianity. I’m just not ready to give up on Jesus
I believe in the power of the Gospel. I believe Jesus changes hearts, and that his calling is a daring summons to a truly social justice – to a salvation that changes our minds as well as our souls. But much of the preaching I hear these days makes me cringe.