Preaching Well
Preaching Well is a podcast hosted by Bishop Saju Muthalaly, Bishop of Loughborough in the Diocese of Leicester, that explores the art of preaching in a global context. It features interviews with world-class voices such as Rowan Williams, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Martyn Snow, offering wisdom and insight for preachers. The podcast aims to help speakers communicate Scripture with clarity, compassion, and courage across different cultures and generations.
Episodes
Episode 26: Finding Your Voice: A Conversation with Archbishop Dame Sarah Mullally
Few people know the hidden work behind public preaching. In this moving conversation, Archbishop Sarah Mullally shares the realities of preaching with dyslexia: the fear of reading aloud, the discipline of preparation, the challenge of comparison, and the joy of finding her own voice.Together, we explore how sermons are born, why accessibility matters, how confidence grows, and what happens when w
Episode 25: Rt Rev Stanley Elilekia Hotay - Preaching without decorating the Gospel, from the foot of Kilimanjaro
Eight pilgrims from Leicester travel down red-dust roads beneath Mount Kilimanjaro to learn from a bishop whose diocese has planted hundreds of churches, many meeting under trees. In this powerful conversation, Bishop Stanley Elilekia Hotay shares a startlingly simple vision: preach Christ, go where people are, and never avoid the places nobody else wants to go.Along the way, he challenges Western
Episode 24: Jonathan Agnew - Preaching with Trust and Integrity
Jonathan Agnew: Cricket, Trust, Voice and the Art of Communication.What can preachers, leaders and communicators learn from one of the most recognisable voices in British broadcasting?In this special episode of Preaching Well, Bishop Saju Muthalaly and Rev James Pickersgill sit down with Jonathan Agnew, the legendary BBC Test Match Special commentator, for a conversation that goes far beyond crick
Episode 23: Simon Guillebaud - Preaching Christ without compromise
Content Warning: This episode contains personal stories and descriptions of violence, war, armed conflict, death threats, bereavement, and traumatic experiences from ministry in Burundi. Simon recounts incidents involving killings, threats to life, severe suffering, and the effects of conflict on families and communities. Some listeners may find these stories distressing or triggering. Please take
Episode 22: Stephen Foster - Speak Jesus, trust the Spirit, love the people in front of you.
A barrister turns preacher...Stephen Foster from St Aldates, Oxford strips preaching back to its core: speak Jesus, trust the Spirit, love the people in front of you.From serving coffee to leading a new generation of preachers, he shares what actually forms a voice that connects—across ages, doubts, and a culture that feels "pre‑Christian” again.Expect sharp honesty, surprising hope, and a simple
Episode 21: Canon Dr Paula Gooder - Preaching with clarity under pressure
Preaching isn’t performance. It’s clarity under pressure.In this lively, wisdom‑packed conversation, Paula Gooderpulls back the curtain on what really makes a sermon land. Do the deep work—but don’t show off your notes. Know your congregation— Choose one thing. Say it simply. Let it travel.From cathedral pulpits to small congregations, Paulaexplores how great preaching adapts, listens, and lives i
Episode 20: Rev Nicky Gumbel - Preaching not as performance, but as love in motion
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
Episode 19: Bishop Eleanor Sanderson - Prayer, Fire, and the Courage to Speak
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
Episode 18: Ian Collinge - A rhythm of revelation that reshapes preaching, prayer, music, table, and pulpit
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 toge
Episode 17: Lat Blaylock - Preaching Good News to the to the honest, unfiltered minds of young people
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 to
Episode 16: David Porter -Preaching that creates a space where enemies become neighbours, and truth is spoken gently.
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 fractur
Episode 15: Rt Rev Graham Tomlin - Preaching is a space where Scripture burns, culture listens, and the Spirit breathes.
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 pre
Episode 14: Prof Anthony Reddie - Preaching with fire, tenderness, resistance, and grace
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 storytel
Episode 13: The Most Reverend & Right Honourable Stephen Cottrell - Preaching is Simply a Long, Steady Walk with God
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 ev
Episode 12: Rev Jonathan Macy & Rev Phil Bryson - Preaching as a Living Conversation shaped by Trust, Courage and Faith
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 fa
Episode 11: Rt Rev Sam Corley - Premise of Preaching: Craft, Content and Character
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
Preaching Well - Trailer
Preaching Well is where the art of preaching meets the pulse of the world.Hosted by Bishop Saju Muthalaly, Bishop of Loughborough in the Diocese of Leicester, this podcast explores how Christians can speak Scripture with power and precision - across cultures, contexts, and generations.
Episode 10: Rt Rev Guli Francis-Dehqani - Preaching the rhythms & from the Margins
A bishop shaped by exile, welcome, and the slow courage of untying life’s hardest knots steps.In this vivid, searching conversation, Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani opens up about preaching that breathes - preaching rooted in honesty, tension, questions, and the kind of quiet conviction that still moves mountains.She speaks of fear in the church, the gift of asking better questions, the poetry of fait
Episode 9: Hannah Steele - Preaching with Summons and being an Invitation to Jesus
What if preaching is less about delivering answers and more about opening a door?In this episode of Preaching Well, Rev Dr Hannah Steele — theologian, missiologist, and everyday evangelism whisperer — invites us into a world where sermons feel like summons, stories become seeds, and the gospel grows where real life happens.Hannah talks about preaching as an invitation, evangelism as encounter, and
Episode 8: Mark Oakley - Preaching as Poetry: The Nearness in Singing Theology into Life
What happens when a preacher treats language like a sacrament and poetry like oxygen?In this episode of Preaching Well, Dean Mark Oakley invites us into a world where sermons breathe, words stretch, and faith grows in the tension between doubt and delight.He moves from John Donne’s “nearness of the preacher” to the postcards of Nazareth; from poetry that startles the soul to taxi cab grace in Dres
Episode 7: Hueston Finlay - Preaching as a sacramental act and being faithful to the Scriptures
What happens when a preacher treats Scripture like a flame—something to break open, not decorate?In this episode of Preaching Well, Canon Dr. Hueston Finlay takes us inside a life shaped by Ireland, engineering, Cambridge, Windsor, and the fierce conviction that sermons should breathe, not perform.Hueston speaks of listening as prayer, imagination as obedience, and preaching as a kind of sacrament
Episode 6: Ram Gidoomal CBE - Preaching with Courage, Influence and Cultural Humility
⚠️ Content NoticeThis episode contains sensitive discussions about suicide, extreme poverty, and honour based violence.These themes may be distressing for some listeners. If anything in this episode affects you, reach out to trusted friends, family, or professional helplines in your area. You’re not alone.A refugee boy from Kenya walks into a London pub… and meets Jesus.That moment sparks a life t
Episode 5: Revd Dr Kelly Brown Douglas - Preaching Justice and Hope: Faith, Resiliance & Theology
What happens when a preacher carries a whole people’s story into the pulpit?In this episode of Preaching Well, the Revd Dr Kelly Brown Douglas—trailblazing priest, womanist theologian, and voice of moral fire—opens her heart and her history.She takes us from a rainy Dayton street to Harlem classrooms, from enslaved ancestors to vigils, from lectionary wrestling to preaching with butterflies in her
Episode 4: Dr Jared E Alcantara - Preaching Across Borders: Theology, Gospel and Cultural Dynamics
What happens when preaching crosses borders—and finds its voice on the move?In this episode of Preaching Well, Dr. Jared Alcántara takes us from New Jersey housing blocks to Honduran heritage, from migrant churches to megacities, from jazz like improvisation to the art of preaching that reads a room, shifts gears, and crosses cultures without losing the gospel’s center.He opens up the craft: inter
Episode 3: Dr Chris Gnanakan - Preaching Interculturally: Crafting in Context and Culture
When Dr. Chris Gnanakan walks into a room something shifts.In this episode of Preaching Well, he takes us from Palm Sunday nerves to preaching in North Korea, from crowded classrooms to hidden churches, from American halls to back street gatherings in Asia.He unpacks the fire in his bones, the power of one big idea, the danger of twisting truth, the art of stories that hit the heart, and the coura
Episode 2: Rt Revd Martyn Snow - Plot of a Sermon: Homiletical Plot
What happens when a preacher of 35 years sits in a room full of new voices and tells the truth—that preaching is still hard, still mysterious,still thrilling?In this episode of Preaching Well, Bishop Saju and Kat sit down with Bishop Martyn Snow, who opens up abouteverything: the content of his first sermon at seventeen, the stories that shaped him, the African night that rewired his preaching, an
Episode 1: The Most Reverend Rowan Williams - Preaching is a Catholic Job: To Bless, to Evoke and to Witness
What if preaching isn’t a performance, but a pilgrimage? In this episode of Preaching Well, Rowan Williams - poet, priest, theologian, and one of the most extraordinary Christian voices of our time - invites us into the landscape where sermons are born.He speaks of childhood pulpits in Wales, the confidence of abundance, the ache of mystery, the courage of hope, and the quiet, stubborn joy of stan
