Editor's note: In 2003, Bryan Loritts moved to Memphis with a clear purpose in mind. He wanted to plant a multi-cultural, multi-generation church community, and by God's grace he and his team have succeeded. As Bryan says in this interview, that in itself involves prophetic preaching. But Bryan calls attention to what may not be associated in the minds of many with prophetic preaching, and that is the gospel. What does the gospel have to do with bringing a challenging word?

PreachingToday.com: Do you think prophetic preaching is a good term?

Bryan Loritts: It's a great term, but you have to explain it, because the term prophetic has several connotations. Do you mean prophetic in the sense of foretelling, or in the sense of forth telling? Prophetic preaching is forth telling. Whether you see yourself as a prophetic preacher or not, anyone who stands and opens up the Bible and says, "Here's what God says," is really taking on the mantel of a prophet. In the Old Testament when the prophets came, they always came saying, "Here's what God is saying."

Have you preached any sermon series recently that were more prophetic in the sense of being confrontational?

Well, let me say a bit about Memphis. They say the average city has one church per 1,000 people; Memphis has two. I call Memphis Churchville, USA—it's a highly religious place. Yet as churched as it is, Memphis is one of the most racist, segregated places in the country. So one thing I try to unpack is, What has religion, what has church, done the wrong way? What has it accomplished for the city? You'd have to say, not much.

So one thing we're preaching on this year is the gospel. Not that we didn't preach the gospel before, but we wanted to take a 12-month run at confronting cultural Christianity, moralism, religion—the elder brother mindset that is rampant in Memphis—and juxtapose that with the gospel. So this whole year has been somewhat confrontational, because people are having their perceptions of what church and Christianity is all about completely shattered by the cross of the gospel. Specifically we're running through the Sermon on the Mount and juxtaposing what Jesus teaches about the gospel with religion.

What can we learn about prophetic preaching from the Old Testament prophets?

One is the incredible courage and boldness they had to stand in front of people and go, Hey, I'm going to tell you something you probably won't like, but I'm on assignment and I've got to do it anyways. You couldn't be a people-pleaser and do what they did. That gives me comfort, knowing that I'm standing on assignment from God. I can't lead people and be scared of them at the same time. I've got to speak the truth of God, because I love them dearly.

The prophets get a bad rap, because when you think prophetic, you think black and white; you think of something that is only condemning or critical. But Old Testament prophecy is really an incredible picture of grace. The prophet's punch line was always, Here's what God is going to do, so get your act together and avoid it. So the prophet came not primarily to condemn people. Yes, he called out sin, but he came as an instrument of God's grace. Prophetic preaching says the very fact that you're still alive today is God's way of saying there's time for you to turn around.

In my context, I resonate with the prophet Jonah. Sometimes God assigns you to minister to people that in your flesh you would not enjoy being around. When Jonah went to Nineveh, he did not like the Ninevites. They were the oppressors. He wanted to open his mouth, spew forth the word of the Lord, step back, and watch God zap them. That's why he gets upset when God shows kindness to people who were oppressing the Jews.

Honestly, as an African-American preaching in a multicultural context, my passion comes out of my wounds. I've experienced some hurtful things in the past from my white brothers and sisters that God is healing me of. Historically there are some similarities between whites in this country and the Assyrians, in that whites were in the position of power and they abused that power. Yet God, as he did with Jonah, is sending me, a minority, to preach prophetically and yet graciously the cross of Jesus Christ to a group of people who used to oppress us. That encourages me when I'm tempted to bitterness like Jonah succumbed to.

Where does prophetic preaching get off track?

Jesus has three offices—prophet, priest, and king—and so Jesus wore the mantel of a prophet, yet John says Jesus was a man full of grace and truth. Prophetic preaching gets off track when I use the Word of God as a sledgehammer to bludgeon people, when there's no graciousness in how I present the truth.

Some who see themselves as preaching prophetically can see the world as black and white. There's a temptation to get into legalism, and to be very regimented, to be black and white on things that the Bible doesn't speak clearly about and that aren't essential matters of faith. At our church we talk about essentials versus nonessentials. We say in a loving way that we're not budging on the essentials, but when it comes to nonessentials, we have to say, As we study the Scriptures, we don't see God speaking clearly on that.

When the prophet spoke to the people, the only thing he could hold on to was, I know what God said to me. That's what I've got to preach. I've got to preach with clarity what God is clear on. On anything else I may present my opinion, but I can't be as black and white. Prophetic preaching derails when it starts speaking forcefully about stuff that the Scriptures don't speak forcefully on.

Whom do you look up to for their prophetic preaching?

Three men have had the biggest influence in my life. My dad, of course (Crawford Loritts, pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia). I grew up the son of not just a preacher but a great preacher, and not just a great preacher but a great person. My dad would be the first to call out truth, but he'd be the first to take his shirt off his back and help the less fortunate. I've seen my dad weep in the pulpit.

When I said I wanted to be a pastor, my dad said to me, "Son, I'm not a pastor (At the time he wasn't, now he is), but I've got a pastor friend who can help you." It was Kenneth Ulmer (pastor of Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California), and I sat under him. He influenced me powerfully, and he has a strong prophetic ministry.

Tony Evans (pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas) is a friend of the family. I spent a summer working with him.

What books have influenced the prophetic side of your preaching?

Henri Nouwen and Timothy Keller are authors who have been huge from the standpoint of helping me understand the gospel. Again, the gospel is prophetic, because it deals with sin and calls people to repentance, which is what the prophets did.

Tozer has been incredibly helpful for me. So have the biographies on great preachers who functioned in a prophetic way, like Spurgeon. I read Lewis Drummond's Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers. The two-volume work George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth Century, written by Arnold Dallimore and published by Banner of Truth, was extremely helpful. Banner of Truth also published a two-volume biography of D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, written by Iain H. Murray. I devoured those books.

What purpose do you have in your sermons that naturally leads to their being prophetic?

I love what Charles Spurgeon said when asked, in today's terminology, what his "operating system" was. "I take my text and make a beeline for the cross." I want to lift up the glory and splendor of the cross. I want to get people to see that in Christ they are accepted, they are beloved, they have all that they need. They need to get off the moralism track.

G. K. Chesterton said, "Jesus Christ did not die to make bad people good; he died to make dead people alive." In Memphis that really resonates with people, because there's this sense that if I go to the right church, if I go to that Bible study, if I get the radio preacher bobble heads, then I will be a good enough person. The gospel shatters all that, and it does it in a way that people are relieved. They can get off the treadmill of religion.

Bryan Loritts is the Lead Pastor of Abundant Life Church in Silicon Valley, California ..