He tried to disprove Christianity — and met Jesus instead.

In this episode of Preaching Well, we are joined by Nicky Gumbel, the pioneer of Alpha, a storyteller of faith, and a quiet evangelist to millions.

Nicky talks about the night he opened the New Testament as a sceptic — and found himself addressed. About preaching not as performance, but as love in motion: introducing people to Jesus because nothing else matters more.

They explore what shapes preaching that connects — law courts and lunch tables, doubt and delight, logic and story. Why the best sermons anticipate objections before they speak. Why stories slip past defences. Why honesty, humility, and joy still cut through a secular age.

Nicky reflects on suffering and hope. On praying Come, Holy Spirit when you can’t change a life — and trusting God to do what only God can do. On unity across traditions, passing the baton well, and why succession is an act of faith, not loss.

At the heart of it all: three human longings — love, meaning, belonging — and the stubborn belief that all three are found in Jesus.

This is preaching shaped by Hyde Park walks and kitchen‑table conversations.
Faith without noise. Confidence without ego. Hope without naivety.

If you preach.
If you doubt.
If you’re still wondering whether the gospel can speak today

This episode reminds us why we speak at all.

What happens when a preacher shaped by student hostels, Pacific villages, and the aftermath of the Christchurch attacks steps into the pulpit? Bishop Eleanor Sanderson brings a rare mix of tenderness and power—prayer that burns deep, vulnerability that risks everything, and a global vision that refuses to shrink God to one culture.

In this episode, she talks mission as apprenticeship, preaching as community life, leading through crisis, praying inside a mosque, and learning to hear God’s voice in both silence and tears. It’s preaching with guts. Preaching with joy. Preaching that leans hard on the Spirit.

Come and hear a bishop who doesn’t just prepare sermons—she wrestles with them, weeps over them, and sometimes proclaims them like a wave that’s been building for days.

This is a conversation for anyone who wants to preach with depth, clarity, courage, and hope.

What if worship didn’t just include different cultures — but was shaped by them?

In this episode of Preaching Well, Bishop Saju sits down with Ian Collinge, an ethnodoxologist —a listener of cultures, rhythms, stories, and songs. Not a curator. A guest. A learner.

They talk about the move from multicultural worship (many cultures present) to intercultural worship (many cultures shaping the song together). From adding a token language to sharing real agency. From attendance to ownership.

Ian unpacks worship as a journey — God speaks, we respond, God speaks again. A rhythm of revelation and response that reshapes preaching, prayer, music, table, and pulpit. He asks sharp questions with gentle force: Who chooses the songs? Who holds the mic? Who gets heard?

This is a conversation about humility and power. About language and listening. About story — not fitting God into our story, but finding ourselves inside God’s story, from creation to new creation.

You’ll leave with images you won’t forget: A table with more than one kind of bread. A song with more than one pulse. A pulpit with more than one voice.

If you preach. If you plan worship. If you’ve ever felt your services needed more than good intentions —

This episode listens deeply, challenges gently, and invites the church to sing again — together.

What if the most powerful theologians in the room are eleven years old?
In this episode of Preaching Well, Lat Blaylock — teacher, thinker, storyteller, and longtime shaper of young hearts — takes us to the frontier where school and church meet.

Lat moves between classrooms and chapels, parables and poetry, Gandhi essays and jigsaw‑piece souls.
He shows how children crack open questions adults are too afraid to ask, how teaching trains the preacher’s imagination, and how good news sounds when spoken to the honest, unfiltered minds of young people.

He talks about grace, curiosity, artistry, silence, formation, and the fierce belief that anyone — absolutely anyone — might be standing on the threshold of a spiritual awakening.

It’s surprising. It’s tender. It’s alive with wonder.

What happens when a preacher steps into the pulpit carrying stories of Belfast, Bosnia, Coventry — and the hard‑won wisdom of reconciliation?

In this episode of Preaching Well, David Porter — strategist, peacebuilder, listener, and longtime companion in conflict‑torn places — opens up the craft of preaching as a public act of courage, humility, and deep, attentive love.

David talks flags and fractures, identity and nationalism, lament and trauma, listening as a spiritual discipline, and the miracle of speaking truth with grace in communities that don’t agree on much.
He names the complexity, refuses the easy slogan, and shows how preaching can hold open a space where enemies become neighbours, and truth walks gently.

This is preaching that steadies, unsettles, and heals.

Quiet strength. Fierce honesty. Real hope.

Bishop Graham Tomlin has preached through fire — literally. From parish pulpits to national crises, he’s carried a voice shaped by Scripture, culture, and the raw edges of human experience. In this episode, he opens his study, his honesty, and his hard-won wisdom. 

We move fast: from Pascal’s “night of fire” to Grenfell’s ash; from the surprises hidden in familiar texts to the quiet weight of a preacher’s character; from storytelling as spiritual art to preaching that speaks to believers, doubters, and everyone in between. 

Graham shows us why the cross still disrupts, why good sermons begin in silence, why hope matters in catastrophe, and how every preacher can learn to read the world with biblical eyes. 

It’s warm. It’s searching. It’s full of stories, insight, and unexpected laughter. 
A masterclass in preaching — and a gentle call to become the kind of person whose life can bear the weight of the words we speak. 

Preaching Well with Graham Tomlin — where Scripture burns, culture listens, and the Spirit breathes. 

What happens when preaching refuses to soothe and instead dares to tell the truth?

In this episode of Preaching Well, Professor Anthony Reddie — theologian, storyteller, disruptor, and one of the UK’s leading voices in Black liberation theology — takes us into the pulpit as a place of protest, imagination, memory, and mercy.

Anthony speaks of Windrush beginnings, Bradford classrooms, family storytellers, and the church’s long entanglement with power.
He names the courage it takes to preach against empire inside institutions shaped by empire.
He shows how humour undoes defences, how stories open doors, and how the gospel sides — stubbornly — with those crushed at the margins.

This is preaching with fire, tenderness, resistance, and grace.Not comfort. Not neutrality. A summons to truth.

The Archbishop of York walks into the conversation with stories that spark, stretch, and surprise.

Stephen Cottrell opens up about the craft he loves - preaching that overflows, reveals, repeats, slows down, and dares to invite. He talks about childhood outside the church, the moment Scripture made him weep in the pulpit, the joy of feeding the soul with art and poetry, and the fierce hope that every sermon can draw someone closer to Christ.

He wrestles with vulnerability, tells the truth about microphones, pace, and craft, and shows why story - raw, human, embodied - still cuts through the noise. He names the hunger in our churches, the longing in our culture, and the courage it takes to call people home.

It’s vivid, warm, unexpected, and full of movement. A joyful, searching conversation with a preacher who believes the gospel is beautiful enough to change us - and generous enough to invite a response every time.

What happens when the preachers who break open the gospel are the ones the world might overlook?

In this episode of Preaching Well, two vicars - Jonathan Macy, who preaches with a stammer, and Phil Bryson, who lives and preaches with a visual impairment—show us how the good news runs through weakness, courage, and raw honesty.

Jonathan speaks slowly because he must. Phil preaches without seeing a face in the room.
And yet their sermons land with power. Their vulnerability opens doors. Their congregations come alive.

Together, they talk about calling, resilience, joy, inclusion, and the surprising gifts released when the pulpit becomes a place for every voice and every body part—especially the ones the apostle Paul calls 'weaker,' 'different,' or 'indispensable'.

It’s earthy. It’s brave. It’s full of hope.

What happens when a preacher discovers that God is already speaking - and the sermon is simply joining in?

In this episode of Preaching Well, Bishop Sam Corley takes us from a tiny 8am communion in his early twenties to pulpits across the country, sharing the moment when preaching snapped into place, like riding a bike with the wind in his face. He talks about reading Scripture like a long, living story, hosting a congregation like guests at a table, and finding the courage to preach when his own words feel dry and nothing seems to land.

Sam opens up about telling stories that touch the heart, asking questions that let silence work, letting God have the loudest voice in the room, and learning - slowly, painfully - to be himself in the pulpit.

Warm, honest, grounded, full of joy and hard‑won wisdom.