Craft & Character

In the latest Craft & Character podcast, Steve Carter interviews Pastor and Author Charlie Dawes. Charlie and his team planted Hill City Church in the greater DMV ( DC + Maryland + Virginia) area. Steve and Charlie talk about how prayer plays a crucial part in the sermon prep process. Charlie wrote a fantastic book a few years ago called “Simple Prayer” about learning to speak to God. Charlie spea...

About the Episode In the latest Craft & Character Podcast episode, Steve Carter takes your questions about how to dive deeper into your sermon prep. Steve unpacks how every person tuning into a sermon has an ache and good desires. As communicators, we must keep searching, praying, studying, and marinating to name the ache people are feeling and also how this text can call out good desires within....

About the Episode In the latest Craft & Character episode, Steve Carter interviews author, professor and Christ Church of the Valley Teaching Pastor Mark Moore about the makings of a great talk. Mark explains his process, why he believes he needs to practice preaching a message six times before ever speaking it to an audience and how he has framed talks for students, college classroom, and adult c...

About the Episode In the latest Craft & Character episode, Steve Carter interviews author, leader and former senior pastor of Connexus Church Carey Nieuwhof about how to get time, energy and priorities for every preacher working in their favor. Carey speaks candidly about what he learned from burning out and the wisdom he has acquired along the way that will help every single communicator to get o...

About the Episode In the latest Craft & Character episode, Steve Carter talks with Bright City Church Teaching Pastor Sharon Hodde Miller. Sharon is an accomplished author and a thoughtful communicator who has an incredible ability to put her Ph. D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School to good use while also making her messages widely accessible. Sharon and Steve unpack her message, “We are he...

About the Episode In the latest Craft & Character Podcast episode, Steve Carter interviews Pastor Noah Herrin about the seven lessons he learned in his first five years of communicating. Noah is a gifted teacher of God’s word, has a heart of gold, and offers up an honest reflection of the crucial lessons he has learned throughout his ministry. Whether you’re just starting out preaching or have bee...

About the Episode In the latest Craft & Character podcast, Steve Carter interviews pastor Tyler Burns about his commitment to being a local pastor and how in bearing witness to the pain of his people there comes a newfound power in his sermons. Tyler breaks down his prep for his Q Conference talk and shares a plethora of mentors, pastors and authors who have helped him shape and form a talk. What...

About the Episode In the latest Craft & Character episode Steve Carter interviews Spiritual Directors Bill & Kristi Gaultiere about the soul journey every pastor and follower goes on to experience more intimacy with Christ. Bill & Kristi run www.soulshepherding.com and have a heart to help people discover the pathway towards emotional honesty, spiritual maturity and how to handle those dark nights...

On the latest Craft & Character podcast episode Steve Carter interviews Westgate Lead Teaching Pastor and Analog Church author Jay Kim about his sermon prep process. Jay is hands down one of the most thoughtful communicators on and off the stage. The process that Jay uses is deeply inspired by his story, his love for music and learning the spiritual gift of lingering. Too often we rush an idea; bu...

In the latest Craft & Character Podcast episode, Steve Carter interviews Ben Kirby - author and creator of the PreachersNSneakers Instagram account. Steve and Ben talk openly about the pressure of image management, the power that can come from the pulpit, and what truly motivates what we wear, post on social media, and communicate. Ben opens up about what led him to start the account, the criticis...

On the latest Craft & Character Episode, Steve Carter interviews author Winn Collier about the life and legacy of Eugene Peterson. Winn unpacks stories from his latest book, A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson, Translator of The Message. The stories he shares detail how Eugene understood the calling to be a pastor, how his geography shaped his theology, how he fou...

In the latest Craft & Character episode, Steve Carter interviews therapist and author Aundi Kolber about the importance of language and tone as a counselor or a preacher. Aundi unpacks the heart behind the message of Try Softer and discusses how pastors can return power to the congregation through their lives and sermons. Aundi’s deep, kind, and thoughtful voice provides insight on what to look fo...

In the latest Craft & Character episode, Steve Carter interviews Cross Point Church lead pastor Kevin Queen about the important role prayer plays in the preparation and delivery of a sermon. One of the keys Kevin brings to everyday life and the stage is his ability to walk in the Spirit, and talk about the Scriptures in practical and accessible ways while keeping an ear tuned to heaven. Kevin shar...

In the latest Craft & Character episode, Steve Carter talks with Church of the City lead minister Darren Whitehead about identifying the traps that often take senior leaders down. Of the 14 transformational practices offered by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, 11 of them deal with sex, money, or power. From there, Darren employs years of research to help us begin to identify the potential traps i...

In the latest Craft & Character podcast, Steve Carter interviews Mars Hill teaching pastor and author Ashlee Eiland about how she writes and rewrites each of her messages, fighting to find the perfect words. Ashlee is a gifted and accomplished author, and she shares her process of journaling, studying, and freewriting to capture the heart and essence of a talk. Ashlee exists to join God in His red...

The Importance of Preparation with Danielle Strickland

In the latest Craft & Character podcast, Steve Carter talks with Fellowship Church Monrovia senior pastor Albert Tate about how preaching racial reconciliation is an act of spiritual formation. “Racism was discipled into the church,” he says, “and it must now be discipled out of the church.” As church leaders, we cannot avoid this conversation, and Albert offers great wisdom and insight. Who is Al...

For most pastors, there has never been a year filled with more turmoil, tension, criticism, and anxiety than 2020. Our congregations were divided by politics, masks, in-person gatherings, and the appropriate reactions to racism in our country. Pastors struggled with preaching through cameras to invisible congregations while making impossible decisions, where any choice would disrupt half the churc...

In the latest Craft & Character podcast, Steve Carter talks with Eastside Christian Church senior pastor Gene Appel about effective leadership through preaching. Gene is an incredible mix of strategic leader and kind pastor, and he leads with integrity. He refers to this mix of strategy as “directional leadership” and explains that his goal of shepherding his congregation influences both his messa...

In this episode of Craft & Character, Steve Carter interviews Western Theological Seminary pastoral care professor Dr. Chuck DeGroat about narcissism in the local church. Chuck explains the narcissism spectrum and discusses how pastors can demonstrate characteristics that lead to unhealthy and toxic narcissistic actions. This might be the most important Craft & Character podcast to date. If you’re...

For over a decade, Carlos Whittaker was one of the leading worship voices in the church, but he began to feel a stirring toward preaching and teaching. A little over 4 years ago, he took that brave step and hasn’t looked back. In this latest Craft & Character episode, Steve Carter asks Carlos about the process of obedience to move into the communicator’s space and the keys that Carlos uses for eff...

In this latest Craft & Character podcast, Steve Carter interviews New Testament scholar Scot McKnight and author Laura Barringer about their latest book, A Church Called Tov. Scot and Laura unpack the stories of abuse at Willow Creek, Harvest, and the SBC that led them to write these words. This is a different kind of episode than we have ever done—but we feel it is paramount to talk honestly as p...

In this episode, Steve Carter interviews Pastor Derwin Gray about the importance of personal discipleship, intimacy with Christ, and helping people truly discover what the gospel is all about. Derwin dives into everything from discipleship vs. leadership in the Bible, and how the church has forsaken one for the other, to the most pastoral and compelling way one can experience deep intimacy (or “in...

In this episode Steve Carter talks with AJ Sherrill about his process for crafting messages and six the values that drive each talk he creates to be a transformative preacher. These six (character, identity, cultivation, authenticity, confidence, and teachable) will help your posture be open to all God wants to do within you and through you. One of the highlights of this episode is hearing AJ’s ho...

In this Craft & Character podcast Steve Carter interviews Tara Beth Leach, Senior Pastor at First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena (“PazNaz”) in Southern California. Tara Beth discusses her prep process, how she invites the pastoral and the prophetic to intersect, the importance of preaching live via video during this COVID season, and the critical spiritual exercises that help her character lea...