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© Rt Rev Saju Varghese Muthalaly, Diocese of Leicester
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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.
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.
14 Episodes
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
⚠️ 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 that races across continents, boardrooms, slums, and sanctuaries.In this 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, honour 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.
What happens when a preacher carries a whole people’s story into the pulpit?In this episode of Preaching Well, the Very Rev. 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.
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: 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.
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 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.
In the second episode, Rt. Rev. Saju and Rev. Kat discuss the Plot of a sermon, as well as the influences, challenges, and surprises of preaching with Rt Rev Martyn Snow. Bishop Martyn excels at preaching outside of traditional church settings, including civic, interfaith spaces and schools.
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.
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