Today I have decided that despite my greatest efforts, I can’t make either side happy enough; in fact, I no longer want to. Wrapped up in the stench of anger and offense, there is the slight fragrance of truth running between each side. However, both are still wrong even when words flung across the creek of divide seem right. Both sides lack love and compassion as they shout to the other side. I can no longer be chained to the two. Why can’t I care about the condition of the black community and refrain from blaming it all on white people? Why can’t I say that black men need to be more present in our homes as better fathers and husbands without being sent back to the other side? I am thankful for law enforcement, but I also believe that police brutality is an issue that needs to be addressed. The issues are real from both directions, but there will never be reconciliation when the messages are delivered through a bull-horn. So I am resigning my life as a slave. I am stepping off the plantation; I am leaving both plantations. I am setting out to follow the creek to where the waters run like a river

Preaching Today: We know you're a huge fan of expository sermons, but let's begin with a nod towards the topical sermon series. What percentage of your sermon series are topical? What are two of your favorite topical series?

Hershael York: I don't preach a topical series often, and when I do, they are still textual and expository. I confess that sometimes I need to preach something from the Bible's metanarrative and let my church see threads of connection and commonality that intersect across books and testaments. I probably do one topical series for every two book studies. Topical series are always shorter, normally six to twelve weeks, and my book series can go for a year, so it probably is only about 10 percent of the time. I recently completed a series called "A Man Like Us" about the life of Elijah, using James' statement about the prophet as the entry point to then walk through the different narratives about Elijah's life. Elijah did great things for God, but he was a man like us. He grew weary and despaired of life—because he was a man like us. He was a great man who needed God's grace and mercy—because he was a man like us.

Religion and politics is notoriously difficult to study. A person’s religion can take many forms. It’s what someone does; it’s also what a person believes; and it’s also the religious community the person belongs to. Sociologists often call these the three B’s (belief, behavior, and belonging). Each of the “b’s” overlap. To make matters more complicated, these aspects of belief are intertwined with demographics like race, ethnicity, geography, gender, and education.

How can we sort out what part of religion shapes politics? How do we compare people while taking into account other factors?

Many Christians haven't a clue how to do the work to which Christ called them in the Great Commission—to make disciples. But is the church—especially in America—effectively equipping believers to be His witnesses? In some quarters, yes, but there is much work to be done—and no one more committed to it than Dr. Rice Broocks, co-founder of Every Nation and senior minister at Bethel World Outreach Church, a multisite church based in Brentwood, Tennessee.

As the driving force behind the films God's Not Dead and God's Not Dead 2, Broocks is working with the church to empower believers to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks why they have hope (1 Pet. 3:15). With hope in short supply in many places in the world and increasingly in the U.S., Broocks has set his sights not only on America but also on the uttermost parts of the world with the Every Nation ministry he co-founded with Phil Bonasso and Steve Murrell.

Church planting is hard. Ever since the Book of Acts, it has stretched and exhilarated and exhausted those called to the work.

But church planting is also essential. If the gospel is going to spread, which it will (Matt. 16:18), then multiplying churches is vital to the mission (Matt. 28:18–20).

Every planter needs books—companions and guides for the journey. Whether thinking through philosophy of ministry or structures of polity or specifics of strategy, good literature can cast vision, steel resolve, and replenish empty tanks. But with so many books clamoring for your attention as a planter, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. It’s not like you have much spare time.

What, then, should you pick up? I asked 20 church leaders what three books every planter should read and why.