Editor’s Foreword – Advent 2026
For 50 years, Journal for Preachers has sought to inspire fresh, Spirit-filled preaching in churches across the globe. Our contributors represent the very best of what preachers can be: wise, creative, theologically nimble, and deeply invested in crafting sermons that are rooted in rigorous biblical reflection and thoughtful social analysis. In a world awash with […]
Publisher’s Foreword – Advent 2026
As we begin our 50th year of publication, Journal for Preachers is going fully online. This move away from printing and mailing costs allows us both to continue publishing JP and to offer the journal at no charge to anyone who wishes to receive it. We hope this change will help make JP’s resources more […]
Publisher’s Foreword – Pentecost 2026
This issue—filled with Spirit-led articles and sermons from gifted colleagues— brings to conclusion the 49th year of Journal for Preachers. In a time of significant cultural and ecclesial shifts and challenges, we work to bring you JP in the firm conviction that the voices curated in these pages are crucial and their wisdom ever more […]
Sermon: “Pentecostal Power”
Back to Past Issues “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested […]
Sermon: “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”
Back to Past Issues This sermon was delivered by Reverend Gonzalez-Block on June 6, 2025, at the Montreat Youth Conference In a way, I’ve been in your shoes … in your pews. I never came to Montreat as a conferee, but I did come for the first time as a back-home leader exactly ten years […]
Pentecost Preaching: What If Jesus Meant All This Stuff?
Back to Past Issues There is a story that has populated sermons in some traditions for decades. A lifesaving station began as a ramshackle hut with devoted volunteers who braved storms to rescue shipwreck victims. Many lives were saved and soon the station became famous. As their fame grew, so did the desire of others […]
Instances of the Spirit in the Protestant Mainline
Back to Past Issues “The outrageous is the reasonable, if introduced politely.” – Charles Fort In 2014, I staffed a Bible study the night before my family’s summer vacation began. Two people showed up. Louise and Paula. My mind kept wandering across the lake to Michigan. So, we were two or three, depending on the […]
Sermon: “Pentecost Power”
Back to Past Issues Most believers are familiar with and cherish the story of Pentecost. Every year, Pentecost is celebrated around the world as believers joyously revisit and reshare the story found in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Whenever we hear the story, our hearts are stirred as we retell the […]
What the Gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost Means
Back to Past Issues My dean of the theology school at my seminary in Louisville when I studied there in the early 1980s tells the story of sitting on a bench one day overlooking the greens, what we sardonically called the “Josephus Bowl,” when he spotted me making my way across the vast lawn for […]
Sermon: “The Trinity?”
Back to Past Issues “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things […]