Welcome to McKayCaston.com
I help pastors preach God's grace in Jesus as the fuel for spiritual change (vs merely a fallback for moral failure) with a simple, 4-step preaching system that's easy as "painting-by-the-numbers."
What would it feel like to know you were about to deliver a sermon that was going to change people’s lives on the spot ?
Wouldn’t that affect how you approach sermon prep.
Wouldn’t that impact how you actually preach?
I want you to know this: You can have complete confidence know that when you get ready to preach, lives are going to be changed on the spot.
I can’t guarantee that with conventional three-point sermons.
But I can guarantee it if you follow the natural flow of the whole biblical story in every sermon—the four movements.
Let’s be clear.
Gospel impact and life change is a work of the Holy Spirit, not clever sermonic manipulation.
In sermon prep, we cut, split, and stack logs. But the Holy Spirit must bring the fire.
Nevertheless, how we stack the log matters.
If not, they why do we “prepare” sermons, and not just speak extemporaneously?
I have a confession.
For most of my preaching ministry, I stacked logs with a conventional 3-point framework.
I desperately wanted folks to be deeply impacted by God’s grace in Jesus.
But even though I spent up to twenty hours of prep on every sermon, I was often (usually) disappointed by the lack of visible response to the message.
Yes, there were a handful of folks impacted here and there, but not as consistently nor to the depth I'd hoped.
Nevertheless, I kept doing the same thing over and over—with the same disappointing results.
What was the problem?
I went on a journey to find out.
It began with an experiment.
What if I had a very limited canvas for a sermon?
Say, a Twitter post (now X).
Would it be possible to compose the essentials of a genuinely gospel-centered, “cross-tethered” sermon with 280 characters.
Not words. Characters.
This required me to FOCUS on the actual “elements” of what MUST be included in a sermon for it to have maximum redemptive impact.
I knew something must be missing from my sermons.
Twitter was going to help me discover the missing piece.
What happened next was the biggest eureka moment of my pastoral life.
If you'd like to hear the rest of the story, learn more here.
đź‘‹ Hi, I'm McKay!
Originally from Memphis, I spent my high school years in Mississippi and now live in Dahlonega, GA, where I love to spend time with my family and hike the southern Appalachian mountains of north Georgia. As a former pastor of 26 years, seminary professor, and author, I now lead a new 501c3 nonprofit ministry, Cross-Tethered Preaching.
If you're a pastor or lay teacher, you'll want to check that out.
Of course, I still write what I hope are practically helpful books, which you'll find here at mckaycaston.com.
Here's some more info about me.
FAMILY
- Kristy and I have been married for 32 years.
- We are grateful parents to three adult children (28, 26, and 20).
MINISTRY JOURNEY
- My ministry path has taken me through various contexts:
- Memphis, TN (urban)
- Tupelo, MS (small town)
- Greenwood, MS (rural farming community)
- Atlanta, GA (suburban)
- Dahlonega, GA (small college town), where I spent 12 years as a church planter and founding pastor.
- In addition to leading CTP, I teach homiletics and theology for Metro Atlanta Seminary.
EDUCATION
- I graduated from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1991 with a BA in history and literature.
- I completed an MDiv at Covenant Seminary in 1994.
- I also have a PhD in Expository Preaching and DMin in Gospel Renewal.
PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY
My life mission is to help people, especially pastors like me, help others come alive to the wonder, beauty, and transforming power of God’s grace by tethering every sermon, lesson, Bible study, devotion, etc., to the cross of the risen and reigning Jesus.
Of course, for preachers to communicate this way, we need to be tethered to the cross ourselves—as sons before servants, abiding in Jesus as our perfect righteousness. In this way, preaching the cross of Jesus becomes the overflow of a grace-saturated, Jesus-centered, Father-dependent, Spirit-filled life.
To that end, my hope is that mckaycaston.com and Cross-Tethered Preaching will not only help you preach cross-tethered sermons but also live a cross-tethered life.
