How Jentezen Franklin Preaches: One Sticky Phrase, a Chain of Bible Stories
Jentezen Franklin has pastored Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, since 1989, and he calls himself a storyteller first. We studied nine of his sermons, most of them from 2020 to 2026. The shape holds: one short phrase grabbed from the text, walked through a chain of Bible stories, and a congregation kept physically in the sermon the whole way.
Who Jentezen Franklin is
Franklin grew up in a Church of God pastor’s home in North Carolina, traveled as an evangelist and was headed for a career on the saxophone before he answered the call to preach. He took Free Chapel from a congregation of about 300 in 1989 to a 3,000-seat auditorium in 2004. Today it has campuses across Georgia, South Carolina and California, with Destin, Florida, announced.
His Kingdom Connection broadcast airs in more than 200 nations. His annual January 21-day fast, by his own 2020 estimate, draws “well over one million people” across campuses, television and online. He is a New York Times bestselling author whose books on fasting anchor that yearly call.
The shape of a Franklin sermon
Franklin reads the text early and usually goes straight into it with no warm-up story. Then he grabs one short, sticky phrase from it, like “a little further,” “Ebenezer” or “get up,” and makes it the spine of the sermon.
His sermons are chains of Bible stories rather than chains of arguments. He walks that one phrase through three to five narratives and lands every one on the same words. In “The Power of a Little Further,” the phrase moves from Gethsemane to Esther refusing half the kingdom.
He fills the hinges with one-liners people can repeat in the parking lot: “Don’t put a period where God puts a comma.” A brief personal or family story usually shows up along the way.
And he keeps the congregation in it with “Everybody say…”, praise breaks and blessings spoken over the person in the next seat. Many of his sermons turn to Jesus or the gospel near the end.
What made his preaching different
A storyteller first
He calls himself a storyteller first, so his sermons are chains of Bible stories, not arguments.
One sticky phrase
One short phrase, like “a little further,” gets landed on every story until the room can’t forget it.
The room in it
“Everybody say…”, praise breaks and blessings over a neighbor keep the congregation physically in the sermon.
What others said
“If anybody takes the time to look you up on YouTube and watch one of your sermons, you’re so well prepared.”
— Clay Clark, podcast host
“Jentezen Franklin is about as genuine as they come.”
— Tessie DeVore, vice president of Charisma House, c. 2008 (Gainesville Times)
What to take into your own pulpit
Find the phrase in the text
A few words from the passage can carry a whole sermon if you keep coming back to them.
Stack stories, not arguments
Walking one idea through several Bible narratives shows people it runs through all of Scripture.
Get the room involved
When people say the phrase, praise or bless a neighbor, the sermon stops being something they only watch.
Those are the ideas. The guide turns them into ten steps you can follow this week, plus the sermons we studied and a fill-in outline in his shape.
Free PDF · Preach Like the Greats
Learn to preach like Jentezen Franklin.
This post is the overview. The guide has the research and the method.
- The 9 sermons we studied, start to finish
- Ten steps to preach the way he does
- His sermon outline, movement by movement
- A fill-in template for your own text, 9 pages
Common questions
What is Jentezen Franklin’s preaching style?
Story-driven and energetic. He calls himself a storyteller first, builds sermons as chains of Bible stories around one sticky phrase, and draws the congregation in with “Everybody say…”, praise breaks and blessings.
How does Jentezen Franklin structure a sermon?
He reads the text early, pulls one short phrase from it, walks that phrase through three to five Bible narratives, drops repeatable one-liners at the turns, and often turns to Jesus or the gospel near the end.
Where does Jentezen Franklin preach?
At Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, where he has been pastor since 1989. The church now has campuses across Georgia, South Carolina and California, and his Kingdom Connection broadcast airs in more than 200 nations.