Preaching Well Podcast

Words matter.
Preaching matters.
Every day, someone stands up and speaks.
And people lean in - hungry for hope, truth, and meaning.

But preaching is hard work:
It takes craft.
It takes courage.
It takes character.

That’s why we’ve created Preaching Well - a podcast for preachers and those who love preaching.

Hosted by Bishop Saju Muthalaly, Bishop of Loughborough in the Diocese of Leicester, each episode contains deep wisdom from some of the most insightful and inspiring voices in contemporary Christianity.

Each episode will draw listeners into deep, energising conversations that bring wisdom, wit, and wonder to the craft of preaching.

Designed to encourage and equip you to communicate Scripture clearly, compassionately, and courageously across cultures, through differing contexts, and for every generation.

Preaching Well - where the art of preaching meets the pulse of the world.

Open your app, hit play, and dive deep into the conversation...

Episode 1: Rowan Williams

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 standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a congregation and whispering, “Will you look at that with me?”

Rowan guides us through Augustine and the Desert Fathers, the limits of language, the long work of healing, and the audacity of preaching in a fractured world. He names the tensions, honours the questions, and returns—again and again—to the God who breaks us open the way bread is broken.

It’s tender. It’s wise. It’s full of light.

Episode 2: Rt Revd Bishop Martyn Snow

Plot of a Sermon: Homiletical Plot

In the second episode, Rt Revd Saju and Revd Kat discuss the Plot of a sermon, as well as the influences, challenges, and surprises of preaching with Rt Revd Martyn Snow.

Bishop Martyn excels at preaching outside of traditional church settings, including civic, interfaith spaces and schools.

Episode 3: Dr Chris Gnanakan

Preaching Interculturally: Crafting in Context and Culture

In the third episode of Preaching Well, Dr Gnanakan 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.

When Dr. Chris Gnanakan walks into a room, something shifts. 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 courage it takes to preach where others won’t, don’t, or can’t.

This is preaching with scars, joy, grit, humour, and a fierce love for Jesus.

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 the fourth 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, Dr Jared shifts gears, and crosses cultures without losing the gospel’s center. He opens up the craft: internalizing a sermon instead of memorizing it, riffing like a jazz musician, building bridges between text and context, and helping preachers speak with courage, humility, and holy imagination in an intercultural world that won’t wait for us to catch up.

Episode 5: Dr Kelly Brown Douglas

Preaching Justice and Hope: Faith, Resilience & Theology. What happens when a preacher carries a whole people’s story into the pulpit?

In the fifth episode of Preaching Well, the Very 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 stomach and a cloud of witnesses at her back. Kelly reveals the truth she brings to every sermon: God’s justice breathes in every life, and hope rises from stories the world tried to silence.

Bold. Tender. Unfiltered. Hit play.

Episode 6: Ram Gidoomal CBE

This 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.

Preaching with Courage, Influence and Cultural Humility. What happens when a refugee boy from Kenya walks into a London pub… and meets Jesus. That moment sparked a life that races across continents, boardrooms, slums, and sanctuaries.

In the sixth episode of Preaching Well, Ram Gidoomal takes us from the Silk Road to Southall corner shops, from first class flights to the heartbreak of the Dharavi slum, from helping build a £130 million business to walking away because God broke his heart open.

Ram talks about home and homesickness, honor and courage, food and faith, preaching across cultures, and the one sermon that rewired his life forever.

It’s raw. It’s global. It’s full of fire, humour, surprise, and hope.

Episode 7: Canon Dr. 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 the seventh 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 - breaking the Word the way bread is broken. He pushes back against relevance, trendiness, and preacher centric sermons

He returns us again and again to the text, the tradition, the silence, the Hebrew, the Greek, the Church Fathers, the lectionary, and the God who still speaks through them.

This is preaching stripped back to its bones: honest, meticulous, reverent, daring with astonishing clarity.

Episode 8: Dean 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 the eighth 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 Dresden; from the war with cliché to the courage of sermons that shake us awake.

This is preaching as craft, honesty, imagination, and hope, told with Dean Mark Oakley's trademark wit, depth, and gentle fire.

Quietly electric. Thoughtful. Full of resonance.

Episode 9: Revd Dr 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 the ninth episode of Preaching Well, Revd 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 mission as the gentle work of reframing what people think they already know. She moves through Scripture, cinema, culture, curiosity, and the quiet art of noticing - showing how one well placed word, like “daughter,” can break open a heart.

This is preaching with warmth, imagination, honesty, and hope.

A meadow of truth, not a lecture.

Hit play.

Episode 10: Rt Revd Bishop Guli Francis-Dehquani

Preaching the Rhythms and from the Margins. A bishop shaped by exile, welcome, and the slow courage of untying life’s hardest knots steps.

Episode ten is a vivid, searching conversation with Rt Revd Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani who 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 faith, and the strange holiness of wrestling with Scripture that both comforts and wounds. She talks about learning not to collapse under the weight of every knot in the rope, how to spot the ones that can be loosened, and how to make peace with the ones that won’t budge.

Across the episode, she invites us into a posture of trust, resonance, authenticity, and brave tenderness. Not showmanship. Not clichés. Just the real work of preaching in a fearful world: do not be afraid.

It’s warm, wise, surprising, and full of movement. A conversation for anyone who longs to preach, or live with more depth, more honesty, and more courage.

Episode 11: Rt Revd Bishop 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 episode eleven of Preaching Well, Rt Revd 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.

Episode 12: Revd Jonathan Macy & Revd 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 the twelfth episode of Preaching Well, two vicars - Revd Jonathan Macy, who preaches with a stammer, and Revd Phil Bryson, who lives and preaches with a visual impairment - show us how the good news runs through weakness, courage, and raw honesty.

Revd Jonathan Macy speaks slowly because he must. Rev Phil Bryson 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.

Episode 13: Archbishop 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 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.