How Philip Anthony Mitchell Preaches: No Notes, Verse by Verse, One Command
Philip Anthony Mitchell preaches to a room of mostly young adults in south Atlanta and to a far larger audience on YouTube. We studied seven of his sermons from 2025 and 2026, from Matthew, Acts and John. Every one walks a short passage verse by verse, without notes, and turns the title phrase into a command pressed home with urgency.
Who Philip Anthony Mitchell is
Mitchell is a native of Queens, New York, and came to faith in November 2003. With his wife, Lena, he planted Victory Church in Atlanta and led it for about a decade before it relaunched as 2819 Church in January 2023, named for Matthew 28:19.
The church grew from fewer than 200 on a Sunday in 2023 to about 6,000 weekly by late 2025. Its October 2025 “Access” prayer night drew an estimated 40,000 people to State Farm Arena, and by early 2026 its YouTube videos had passed 72 million views across more than 50 countries. He spent three years preaching straight through Matthew, then moved into Acts, John and Ephesians. His first book is Contend (Thomas Nelson).
The shape of a Mitchell sermon
Every sermon has a runway. He welcomes the room, usually speaks to unbelievers directly and prays for them, and sets up the series or book before he reaches the text.
Then he walks a short passage verse by verse, with heavy cross-references across both Testaments and sometimes a Greek word study. He preaches without notes, so it feels like a man who just walked out of the prayer room.
At the pressure points he stops to confess his own past: despair, lust, years in the street. And he keeps coming back to the title phrase. In “Deal Aggressively With This,” the phrase becomes the command itself.
Many of the sermons carry urgency about judgment or Christ’s return. He usually closes in extended prayer rather than a formal call.
What made his preaching different
No notes
He preaches with no notes, straight from the prayer room to the pulpit. The sermon sounds like it was prayed before it was preached.
Verse by verse
He takes a short passage and walks it slowly, verse by verse, the way he went through Matthew for three years.
A command
The title phrase becomes a command, pressed home with urgency that time is running out.
What others said
“He biblically talks about sin and repentance and how there’s actually hope in the Gospel.”
— Elijah McCord, attendee
“When he speaks, I believe him.”
— A friend of podcaster Megan Ashley who had stepped away from her faith, 2025 (Associated Press)
What to take into your own pulpit
Go slow through less
Mitchell takes a short passage and stays in it. Depth in a few verses can carry more weight than a survey.
Confess where it costs
He tells his own past at the pressure points of the text. Honesty about your own sin makes the call to repent believable.
Turn the title into a command
A phrase like “Deal aggressively with this” tells people what to do, not just what to think.
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 Philip Anthony Mitchell.
This post is the overview. The guide has the research and the method.
- The 7 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 Philip Anthony Mitchell’s preaching style?
Urgent, personal and expository. He preaches without notes, walks a short passage verse by verse, confesses his own past at key moments, and turns the title phrase into a command.
How does Philip Anthony Mitchell structure a sermon?
A welcome that speaks to unbelievers and prays for them, series or book context, then a verse-by-verse walk through a short passage with heavy cross-references, a repeated title phrase, and a close in extended prayer.
What is 2819 Church?
The Atlanta church Mitchell leads. It relaunched from Victory Church in January 2023 and is named for Matthew 28:19.