That’ll Preach!

The Olive Tree Community

That'll Preach is a ministry of the Olive Tree Community, founded by Jonathan Favors-Grimes. This podcast is a collection of sermons preached during our Sunday or Midweek services by various ministers & lay people. Sermons are usually preached from the Sunday Lectionary or Daily Office Lectionary, along with a few stand alone sermons.

  1. Good News: A Savior is Born!

    12/24/2025

    Good News: A Savior is Born!

    Minister Alice Nichols Carter preaches the Christmas Eve sermon for the Olive Tree Community. In this sermon Minister Alice preaches from the Gospel of St. Luke 1:26-38, tagging as a title Good News: A Savior is Born!  Luke 1:26-38  NRSVUE  In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. That'll Preach podcast is a ministry of the Olive Tree Community in Atlanta, Georgia. This episode was written and recorded by Min. Alice Nichols Carter and was produced by the Rev. Jonathan Favors-Grimes. Background music by DivKid, The Gentlemen.

    23 min
  2. SEASON 6 TRAILER

    Season 6 Trailer "Where Do We Go from Here?"

    Advent & Christmas Sermon Series: Where Do We Go from Here? A Journey Through the Book of Isaiah As we enter this Advent season, we find ourselves asking a question that echoes across Scripture, history, and our own hearts: Where do we go from here? After the upheavals, divisions, and anxieties of recent weeks, months, and years—amid shifting leadership, national unrest, and the weight of what we’ve witnessed—this question feels especially urgent. Isaiah speaks powerfully into seasons just like this one. A people standing in hard places. A nation unsure of its future. A community seeking hope, guidance, and a God who sometimes feels hidden. This year, our Advent and Christmas journey invites us to consider **“place”**—the places we inhabit, the places we avoid, the places where God meets us, and the places where Christ is present even when His presence is difficult to see. From holy places to broken places… From wilderness places to waiting places… From the places of our deepest fear to the places where God plants new beginnings… Christ comes. And the road that leads to Him might not look like the one we expected. Through Isaiah’s prophetic imagination and the Advent story itself—Mary and Joseph’s long journey through uncertainty toward Bethlehem—we’ll explore how God guides us when the way forward is unclear. We’ll ask together: Where is Christ in the places we stand today? Where do we go from here as a people of faith? How do we follow the road that leads to hope, peace, joy, and love? Join us as we seek the God who meets us in unexpected places and leads us, step by step, toward the Light that no darkness can overcome.

    2 min
  3. The Communion of the Saints

    07/16/2025

    The Communion of the Saints

    The Rev. Hannah Lundberg preaches on the seventeenth line of the Apostle’s Creed, The Communion of the Saints from Revelation 7:9-17 Revelation 7:9-17 NRSVUE After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdomand thanksgiving and honorand power and mightbe to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 For this reason they are before the throne of God    and worship him day and night within his temple,    and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.16 They will hunger no more and thirst no more;    the sun will not strike them,    nor any scorching heat,17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,    and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Neighbors by. Andrea Gibson (August 13, 1975- July 14, 2025) That'll Preach podcast is a ministry of the Olive Tree Community in Atlanta, Georgia. This episode was written and recorded by the Rev. Hannah Lundberg, poem Neighbors was recited and written by American poet and Activist Andrea Gibson and was produced by the Rev. Jonathan Favors-Grimes. Background music by DivKid, The Gentlemen.

    22 min

Trailer

About

That'll Preach is a ministry of the Olive Tree Community, founded by Jonathan Favors-Grimes. This podcast is a collection of sermons preached during our Sunday or Midweek services by various ministers & lay people. Sermons are usually preached from the Sunday Lectionary or Daily Office Lectionary, along with a few stand alone sermons.