How Jerry Falwell Preached: Short Topical Sermons Built for the Room and the Camera

Jerry Falwell pastored Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, for more than 50 years and broadcast its services nationally for five decades. We studied eight of his sermons and messages, from his first sermon in 1956 to messages he gave in 2007. The shape is simple: start from the week’s burning issue, grab attention in the first paragraph, keep it to about 30 minutes, and end with a call to act.

Who Jerry Falwell was

Falwell started Thomas Road in 1956. Thirty-five adults met with him in Mountain View School that June, and the church reached 864 members by its first anniversary. He put the Sunday services on radio within weeks and on television within months, and The Old-Time Gospel Hour carried them to a national audience for five decades.

He pastored Thomas Road until his death in 2007. In 1971 he founded what became Liberty University, which opened with 154 students.

The shape of a Falwell sermon

By his own account, Falwell was “primarily a topical preacher.” He started from the week’s “burning issue,” what people were facing that week, and usually launched from one text or one chapter. When he preached through a book, he described his pace as “usually a chapter a Sunday.”

He wrote a full manuscript, then departed from it in the pulpit. He worked to make the first paragraph grab attention and the ending stick, and he aimed for about 30 minutes, built for both the people in the room and the camera.

The middle was often a list: numbered essentials, pointed questions or “truths.” His “Never quit” convocation message, preached at the start of each school year at Liberty, worked through essentials for hard seasons and questions like “What goal would I set if I knew I could not fail?” He also leaned on stories from Thomas Road’s early days.

Every sermon ended with a call to act. That might be receiving Christ, with a gospel invitation that was standard at Thomas Road services, setting a goal only God could meet, or a short, repeatable charge: “Don’t quit.”

What made his preaching different

What others said

“He remained always a pastor, a faithful preacher of God’s Word.”

— Paige Patterson, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007 (Baptist Press)

“[Falwell] was a mega-church pastor before mega-churches were cool.”

— Jerry Vines, former Southern Baptist Convention president, 2007 (Baptist Press)

What to take into your own pulpit

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.

Common questions