H.B. Charles Jr. Urges Pastors To Preach The Gospel, Not Media Talking Points

The Florida pastor turned to Scripture to remind church leaders that they should preach the Gospel to their community instead of discussing media talking points.

Pastor H.B. Charles Jr. of the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church of Jacksonville and Orange Park, Florida recently spoke out to remind church leaders on their true mission, which is to talk about the Gospel to their communities. The reminder was brought about by his observation that many pastors are now pontificating about the comments made by the media such as Fox News or MSNBC.

Charles preached a sermon during last month's final Together for the Gospel (T4G) Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, where he underscored that "what a man preaches is always more important than how he preaches [because] the goal is soundness of speech, not the smoothness of style," the Christian Post reported.

Charles Reminds Pastors That Preaching Should Be About Jesus

In last month's sermon, Charles argued that because the Bible is about Jesus, pastors's preachings should be about Jesus as well. The 49 year old pastor argued that people do not need "talking heads in the pulpit" giving their opinions about weekly news from "Fox News or CNN or MSNBC." Instead, he urged, when communities come together on the Lord's day, they must hear "news from another network," and that network is God's.

Charles admitted that while he understood that pastors may want to talk about current events, he argued that these discussions on media talking points actually distract from what is supposed to be spoken about: the Gospel. The pastor explained that discussing media talking points focuses on "the busyness of the world" and makes pastors forget about their own salvation and the salvation of the people they are pastoring.

The Florida pastor likened media talking points to "many dirty dishes" that one has to "clean up" and that being busy with such chores will make people become "unimpressed with the Gospel." Charles called upon pastors to "personally savor the Gospel" and to not "forget the significance of your salvation."

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Charles Turns to Scripture for Instructions

The pastor preached on 1 Peter 1:10-12, a letter written by Peter that instructed Christians not to forget their salvation by allowing themselves to become distracted by the day to day events. Charles called it a "pastoral manual" that church leaders must follow. He urged pastors to consider the Scripture and how the Apostle Peter spoke to troubled Chrisitans and urged them to look up from the current events and reflect on the significance of their own salvation.

This year's T4G conference included sermons from several notable preachers with an audience composed of many church leaders from across 50 states and more than 60 countries. The theme was "Last Word," as it would be the final T4G meeting in history. The event had been held annually for the last 16 years.