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Hello Tribe! It's been too long and I wanted to give you the update that many of you have asked for. 

Tribe! It's been a fun year and a half. This project has been life giving and energizing to say the least. I've had the opportunity to build many new relationships and cultivate new friendships and I'm grateful to God for that. I love all that God has done with The Preachers' College Podcast and the churches God has given us the capacity to serve. It's an honor. But it's time for me to transition. This is the final episode of Season 1 of The Preachers' College Podcast. The website will remain live so anyone can dig into the resources but new content won't be uploaded regularly any longer. Season 2 will roll out at some point in the future. I have no clue when. Pray for me. I've got two amazing sons and a gorgeous wife and it's an honor of a life time to serve them and walk with them. My career is taking off and I need The Lord to continue helping me and to continue giving me wisdom. Hearing the stories week after week from The Tribe and getting to learn from the greatest preachers on Earth has been so much fun. I'm a preaching nut so I have to admit this has been a very life giving experience. But it's a season of transition for us at this time. The Calling on my life has never change. The path towards His purpose has looked much different than I ever dreamed. If you ever need me or want anything you know how to get a hold of me. Thank you for your support and prayer.

In this week's episode I share the story of my brother, a portion of his suicide note, and my admonition to those of you preaching God's Word in light of the mental health epidemic. 

In today's episode we have Pastor Jonathan Pokluda on the podcast as our guest. Pastor Jonathan led one of the largest young adults ministries on planet earth for many years in Dallas, Texas. Now he's the Lead Pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church. In today's episode we spend a ton of time discussing what it's like to lead young adults, minister to young adults, and preach to young adults. It's a hot topic because Millennials are leaving the urban context and flooding the suburbs. Careers and families will do that to you. If you have any intention of preaching The Gospel and leading a church over the course of the next two decades you have to pay attention to the emerging generation. They are flooding our churches as they age. We also spend time talking about what it's like to sit under seasoned leadership and learn. It's a great episode to take a ton of notes and I can't encourage you enough to pick up Pastor Jonathan's new book as well. 

Starting this week I'm going to start rolling out mini episodes every other week to discuss practical application to our sermon prep process and preaching. Over the last year I've spent a ton of time listening to Pastors and Leaders that I love freely share insights on sermon prep. I want to start taking little nuggets from the episodes, create laser like focus on pieces of the content, and bring practical application for us. This week I'm focusing on how to weave in values that we want to see rise within the Church through our sermons. The big idea is that as you develop your sermon content consider placing content strategically in your sermon. You will choose to word your points a particular way. You will choose to leverage specific illustrations. You will play with certain forms of application in relation to the points that you're preaching from The Text. As you do so, consider being extremely intentional in the types of illustrations and application that you're using in order to foster specific cultural values and norms you want to see God develop within your people. Lace your sermons with content that explains the Text clearly and also simultaneously pushes forth the culture and values you want to see disseminated within your ministry.

Jen Wilkin is an author and Bible Teacher from Dallas, Texas. She has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. She is on staff as the Classes and Curriculum Director. Jen Wilkin has served The Body of Christ by providing Biblical Teaching and faithful lenses by which we can expound upon The Text from. In this episode Jen gives us an inside look into her preparation process. This is an episode I've been extremely excited about personally because I believe she is one of the most helpful Bible Teachers. Her ability to direct a Text and expose the value, richness, and meaning is worth imitating and learning from. If you haven't heard a Jen Wilkin Study I encourage you to take the time and dig in. If you're a Bible Teacher I encourage your to study how she delivers the content as well. Jen does an incredible job of helping her audience dig into The Text and we have much to learn so get your notes ready!

Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you. That's all folks.

Kelly Needham is a wife, mother, leader, speaker, and author. Kelly provides the perspective of Bible Teaching as a lay leader within the church. I'm really excited about this episode because we have an honest discussion about what it means to be a normal person who loves Jesus, loves the family, and is using the gift of teaching for the glory of God in the local church. It's so easy to get caught up in what I call the preaching grind. The preaching grind is all about increasing the platform and making sure that it all sounds good. That's a problem. But in this episode we talk about what it means to be a normal human who loves Jesus and we talk about what it means to serve God's people faithfully through The Word.

Jimmy Needham is a singer/songwriter and serves as a Pastor on staff at Stonegate Church in Midlothian, Texas. Most of you might know Pastor Jimmy because of his work as a singer/songwriter but don't sleep on the fact that Pastor Jimmy is obsessed with Jesus and loves His Word Preached and proclaimed. In this episode we discuss the dynamics of The Word ministered through sermon and song. Too many pastors fail to harmonize and synchronize the Word Preached and The Word sung. In today's episode we discuss the value of God's Word and the application of God's Word within the context of The Church gathered during the weekly meeting. 

J. R. Vassarserves as the lead pastor of Church at the Crossin Grapevine, Texas. From 2005 to 2013, he served as the founding and lead pastor of Apostles Church in New York City. He is a graduate of Dallas Seminary, is married to Ginger, has three children, and is the author of Glory Hunger: God, the Gospel and Our Quest for More. In today's episode we discuss the more important aspects of preaching. There are a myriad of things we can focus on in sermon prep and sermon delivery but we decided to drill down on the main things in this episode. What I love about Pastor J.R. is that he brings an elevated value on the Word of God in sermon perp. Pastor JR and I spend a lot of time to talking about how to faithfully preach The Word in a way where we remove distractions. Which should be the motivation underneath quality preaching. We talk about how to preach to the specific context that God has placed before us in preaching. This was a helpful episode for me personally and I can't wait to hear about how God impacted your preaching through it. 

In today's episode we have Jared Wilson giving us a spectacular episode on Gospel Centrality within our preaching. Jared is the Director of Content Strategy for Midwestern Seminary, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Spurgeon College, Director of the Pastoral Training Center at Liberty Baptist Church, and author of numerous books, including Gospel Wakefulness, The Pastor’s Justification, The Prodigal Church, The Imperfect Disciple, Supernatural Power for Everyday People, and The Gospel-Driven Church. A frequent preacher and speaker at churches and conferences, you can visit him online at jaredcwilson.com I'm not going to lie to you. I knew I wanted Jared on the podcast because behind Dr. Timothy Keller he is, in my mind, the greatest Gospel Centered thinker and writer I see in our day and age. This brother is absolutely obsessed with the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I can pay no greater compliment. He has had a profound influence on me and I can't thank God enough for what helping the Body of Christ grow in Gospel Centrality. I knew I had to get him on the podcast because the greatest deficit I continually see in too many preachers' is the lack of The Gospel in the sermon. Folks forget Jesus and what He's done in The Cross and Resurrection and that's a problem. This is a light hearted but helpful sermon on preaching with The Gospel as the center of your sermon. 

In today's episodes we have one of my favorite Pastors and Leaders, Dr. Matt Carter. Dr. Matt serves as Pastor of Preaching and Vision at Austin Stone Community Church, which has grown from a core team of 15 to over 7000 attending each Sunday. His desire for Austin Stone to be a church not just in the city, but for the city, led to the creation of the For the City Network, an organization that pursues the redemption and renewal of Austin by developing communities and connecting people. In addition to pastoring at The Austin Stone, Matt is a cancer survivor, co-author of four books and speaker for camps and conferences nationwide. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary.

In today's episode we have Pastor Tony Merida on the podcast.  Tony Merida is the founding pastor of Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, N.C. He also serves as Associate Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. He's the sultan of sermons and it's hard to express how excited I am to share our interview with him today. Pastor Tony Merida has been training, developing, and coaching preachers for many years in both the collegiate context and in the local church. Pastor Tony is a leader of leaders who is one of the foremost go-to leaders on sermon mechanics. He has written extensively on faithful preaching and it's such an honor to have him on the podcast. His books include: Faithful Preaching Orphanology Ordinary: How to Turn the World Upside Down Proclaiming Jesus Eight volumes in the new Christ-Centered Expositioncommentary series (B&H), of which he also serves as a general editor, along with Danny Akin and David Platt.  

If the title of this week's episode is any indication you know good and well this episode is going to be spectacular. In today's episode we have Pastor Vance Pitman, Lead Pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas, Nevada discussing a wide range of topics that many pastors deal with. This is certainly one of my favorite episodes because Pastor Vance wasn't fake and talked straight about real issues that real pastors deal with on a regular basis. We discuss the difference between church planting and pulpit planting. We discuss the hardship of financial crisis and how that affects preaching. We discuss the challenges of trying to be a diverse church. We discuss a wide range of topics that is helpful for both church planters and pastors of established churches. This is one of my favorite episodes and I can't encourage you enough to take plenty of notes and listen to this episode multiple times. It isn't always easy to hear what we need to hear but we will certainly profit from what Pastor Vance has to offer today. 

Dean Inserra is the founding and lead pastor of City Church, where he leads the vision and preaching. Dean was called to start a church in his hometown of Tallahassee when he was the Student Body President at Leon High School. He is passionate about reaching the city of Tallahassee with the Gospel, to see a worldwide impact made for Jesus. Dean is an advisory member of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission'sLeadership Council with the Southern Baptist Convention. He is also a member of Baptist 21. Dean graduated from Liberty University and attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He holds a MA in Theological Studies from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and is pursuing a D.Min from Southern Seminary. In today's episode we discuss mistakes young leaders tend to make in the early days of preaching. Pastor Dean shares about the church planting journey and how church planting is connected to reaching cities with The Gospel. We also spend time talking about mistakes that older leaders make. Get your notes ready!

Dr. Jim Shaddix is the Professor for Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I call him a sultan of sermons because he's legendary. He occupies the W. A. Criswell Chair of Expository Preaching. He also serves as Director of the Center for Preaching and Pastoral Leadership, which exists to resource pastors in local churches. Jim has pastored churches in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Colorado and Alabama, and he also served as Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Preaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans, LA. He is the author of The Passion Driven Sermon(Broadman & Holman, 2003), Decisional Preaching(Rainer, 2018), and co-author with Jerry Vines of Power in the Pulpit(Moody, 1999, 2017) and Progress in the Pulpit(Moody, 2017). Dr. Jim Shaddix has trained some of the greatest preachers and communicators of our day. He has written some of the best books on preaching in our modern era. He is a faithful helpful teacher as it relates to preaching and you won't be disappointed. We spend time in this episode discussing the mechanics of preaching. I wanted to maximize the time I had with Dr. Shaddix with the intent that we get the best sermon preparation tools from Dr. Shaddix. Get your notes ready. You won't be disappointed. 

Danny Akin is the president of South Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Danny Akin has been a preaching professor for decades. He has an immense amount of experience and offers us a wealth of knowledge on preaching. He has trained thousands of preachers and he shares his experiences with us. Dr. Akin gives us perspective on why our preaching should be consistent and faithful with The Text. He also shares the joy of being a faithful preacher over the long haul. We discuss Spurgeon and how to properly prepare a sermon through adequate prep time. I personally love learning from men who have gone before us and have decades of experience. Men like Dr. Danny Akin are a gift because we don't have to bleed to learn the same things they already know. We just need the humility to listen and learn. Get your notes ready because this episode will challenge and stretch you. 

Pastor Robby Gallaty is the Lead Pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church. God radically saved him from drug addiction and used Dr. David Platt to disciple Pastor Robby for two years thereafter. This began a lifelong passion for discipleship. Pastor Robby is the President of Replicate Ministries a discipleship oriented ministry. Pastor Robby is a champion of helping Christians and local churches pursue discipleship. In today's episode we discuss the relationship between preaching and disciple making. We discuss how the Pastor can leverage the pulpit to help his people make disciples. I find that in today's world it's far easier and sexier to grow churches in numerical attendance than to actually create processes for disciple making. I believe this is the greatest challenge in the North American Church in light of the consumeristic cultures that Pastors and church attenders participate in and contribute to. This is certainly a challenging episode but you won't be disappointed!

I'm excited to announce that Art Rainer will join us on the podcast today. Art Rainer is is the Vice President for Institutional Advancement at SEBTS and author of The Money Challenge: 30 Days of Discovering God’s Design for You and Your Money. He's what I call... the money guy. Some of you might be asking why do we have a guy who isn't primarily a preacher on the podcast. Because he's the money guy and you are required to preach about money. Jesus taught on money more than he taught on Heaven. Jesus talked about money over 25% of the time in The Gospels. Money is a big deal to God and it should make up a substantive part of your preaching if you're preaching The Word. The problem is that most of us are either too scared to talk about it or don't know how to go about it in a way that doesn't push people away from God. This is where Sam comes in. He helps us think through how we can preach about money in a faithful way and he doesn't disappoint. Get your notes ready!

Phillip Nation is the Director of Advancement and Global Impact Churches with The Baptist World Alliance. He is an author, a speaker, and leader of leaders. Phillip has become a friend of The Preachers' College. He understands the grind of preaching week in and week out. He is faithful and it's such an honor to host him on the podcast. In this episode we discuss   the value of learning from older preachers and dead preachers. We never want to outgrow our desire to learn from the people God has put ahead of us. We also spend time talking about the value of Context when preaching a sermon. Phillip gives us tools we can use to help bring and pull our people into the depths of The Text we find ourselves preaching in for the week and this alone will prove to be invaluable information for your preaching. Dig in!