Preaching Well

Rt Rev Saju Varghese Muthalaly, Diocese of Leicester

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.
You’ll hear from world-class voices:
Rowan Williams, Kelly Brown Douglas, Martyn Snow, Stephen Cottrell, Mark Oakley, Guli Francis-Dehqani, Jared Alcántara and more - bringing wisdom, wit, and wonder.
Wherever you preach, this is your space to grow as a preacher who speaks with clarity, compassion, and courage.

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22 episodes
Avg 38 min
English

Episodes 22

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Thursday · 27 min
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 assumptions about preaching, leadership, and church growth. He speaks of sermons that first wound the preacher before they heal the listener, of faith that builds churches before the money arrives, and of a gospel that must transform culture rather than be shaped by it. Full of stories, wisdom, humour and hard-earned conviction, this episode is a reminder that preaching is more than information. It is truth carried in the heart, spoken with love, and lived among the people. From the foot of Kilimanjaro comes a fresh invitation: stop decorating the gospel. Preach Christ.
Sunday · 44 min
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 cricket. Together they explore the surprising connections between cricket commentary and preaching: how to build trust, hold attention, tell compelling stories, communicate under pressure, and find the right words when millions are listening. Agnew reflects on: * The secret of great broadcasting * What he learned from Michael Parkinson * How to interview people in moments of triumph and failure * Why trust takes decades to build and seconds to lose * The power of voice, silence and timing * Commentary, leadership and communication in an age of social media * Lessons from cricket that apply equally to pulpits, classrooms, boardrooms and public life Along the way, there are memorable stories involving Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Test Match Special, St Paul's Cathedral, radio broadcasting, and the craft of communicating with authenticity. Whether you're a cricket supporter, preacher, journalist, teacher, podcaster or leader, this is a masterclass in how great communicators earn trust and keep it. A conversation about cricket. A masterclass in communication. A lesson in trust. Jonathan Agnew has spent more than three decades helping millions understand what is happening on the field. In this fascinating and unexpected conversation, he reveals what every communicator can learn from a lifetime behind the microphone.
August 11 · 41 min
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 care while listening and consider whether this episode is right for you at this time. What happens when a prayer changes the course of your life? Simon Guillebaud takes us from an awkward first sermon at boarding school to war-torn Burundi, where a single phone call set him on a path of danger, faith, miracles, heartbreak, and radical discipleship. Along the way, he wrestles with fear, faces death threats, watches God show up in extraordinary ways, and learns that preaching is far more than communication. It is surrender.In this raw and deeply personal conversation, Simon explores courage, storytelling, spiritual warfare, prayer, suffering, and what it means to preach Christ without compromise. From refugee camps to revival meetings, from parenting struggles to moments of breathtaking hope, this is a conversation that refuses easy answers and keeps pointing back to Jesus.If you preach, teach, lead, or simply want a faith that moves beyond comfort, this episode will challenge, encourage, and stay with you long after it ends.
July 4 · 33 min
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 challenge: - Don’t impress—serve. - Don’t complicate—proclaim. - Don’t move on—stay with the gospel. Because you never graduate from it.
June 25 · 38 min
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 in the real world. She shows why story bridges every gap—centuries, cultures, sceptics, and saints—and how imagination can bring scripture off the page and back to life. Expect sharp truths and freeing permission: – You can’t say everything—so say one thing well. – Make the complex accessible, not diluted. – Stop teaching sermons; start shaping encounters. Along the way, she champions unheard voices, celebrates laypreachers, and calls the Church back to its core: communication that reaches everyone. Honest, practical, and unexpectedly funny—this episode willstretch your imagination, sharpen your preaching, and quietly re‑centre everything on Christ.
June 9 · 37 min
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 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.
April 15 · 39 min
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 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.
April 14 · 34 min
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 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.
April 11 · 39 min
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 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.
S1 · E16
April 11 · 35 min
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 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.
April 11 · 54 min
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 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.
April 11 · 48 min
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 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.
February 2 · 41 min
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 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.
S1 · E11
January 29 · 35 min
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 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.
January 29 · 24 min
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 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.
January 22 · 40 sec
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.
January 10 · 22 min
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 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.
January 10 · 30 min
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 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.
January 10 · 45 min
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 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 Mark’s trademark wit, depth, and gentle fire. Quietly electric. Thoughtful. Full of resonance.
January 10 · 40 min
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—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.

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