In July the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky met in Lexington, Kentucky for their annual meeting. Academy of Preachers set up an exhibit and introduced many attendees to the mission and programs of the AoP. In the top picture, Allan Moody, AoP Office Manager, and Elbonita Hawkins, AoP 2011, helped man the booth during one day of the annual meeting.

In the second picture, Dr. Moody, AoP President, greets Rev. Jonathan Morehead, brother-in-law to AoP friend and donor Amos Jones.  In the third picture, Dr. Moody speaks with Rev. Freddie Moody, associate pastor of the Pleasant Green Baptist Church in Lexington; Rev. Moody will be our liaison with the churches of the General Association as we prepare for the 2016 National Festival in Lexington, Kentucky, in January of 2016.

Read more about the annual meeting of the General Association; follow the link in the right hand column.

Founder and President  

Ecclesiastes contends there is a time for everything; and surely this is the time for preaching.

Our homes, our communities, our nation, even our world is in dire need of the gospel of God, that God, in Christ, is redeeming the world, is at work in every circumstance to pull us forward into the future that Jesus called the kingdom of God.

But there is much evidence pointing in the other direction. I cannot remember a stretch of days during which so many dramatic and dreadful things have happened.

• In Iraq, a murderous band of armed thugs is spreading genocide to every village and hamlet.

• Along our southern border, desperate children and youth are piling up in refugee camps, waiting for relief from the danger and drama back home.

• In St. Louis, yet another young, unarmed black youth is gunned down by an armed and uniform man.

• On the other side of the world Russian troublemakers stir up discontent in Ukraine.

• In California, a famous and beloved actor succumbed to depression and took his own life.

• And in a million private and unnoticed corners of the world people are struggling to feed families, worship God, resist addiction, find work, pay bills, escape danger, and defeat cancer.

For all of these signs of our times, a gospel word is needed: in the public arena and in the parish auditorium. Preachers are called upon to speak into these difficult and desperate situations the good news of the God: God lives, God loves, God acts, God forgives, God creates, God renews.

Yes, some would-be preachers take to their pulpits in these times to judge, condemn, rebuke, exclude, denounce, and warn. And I suppose there is a time even for these harsh words, but now it seems what the world needs is the love and mercy of God, the kindness and righteousness of God's people, and the courage and confidence of God's preachers.

Has God called you to preach? This is your time!

This is a time for preaching: for looking past the political, economic, social, and scientific explanations for all the turbulence; looking past the ideological divides that keep us from God and from one another; looking past the blame and bluster of superficial speakers, and lift up the promise of God: Nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God which is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

These words of hope and healing are the leaves on the tree of life that grows on either side of the river of life; they are for the healing of the nations. And we preachers are the ones with the wonderful task of saying so. God give us strength. It is a time for preaching.