ATLANTA – James Somerville, pastor of First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., was featured July 10 on "Day 1," a nationally broadcast radio program also accessible via streaming audio. A sermon by Somerville will also be broadcast July 17.
The program includes a sermon by Somerville and a five-minute interview with him conducted by the program’s executive producer and host Peter Wallace.
Somerville’s first sermon is titled "The Reckless Sower," based on the 13th chapter of Matthew and Jesus’ parable of the sower.
"The upsetting of expectations is what parables are all about," Somerville said. "As Jesus told them, they were not just charming little stories to illustrate a point. They were rhetorical tools he used in the way a builder might use a wrecking ball or bulldozer, to level His hearers’ expectations and clear the ground for the new understanding He wanted to put in its place."
Somerville continues the theme July 17 with his sermon titled "A World Full of Weeds."
First Baptist Washington, D.C., is a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship affiliated church. "I like to tell people we are the ‘Jimmy Carter kind of Baptists’ and not ‘the Jerry Falwell kind,’" Somerville says. "Usually they get it right away. I’m not trying to deify Jimmy Carter – a former member of this church – nor am I trying to vilify Jerry Falwell. But Jimmy’s humble and hardworking Christianity is more like the kind we are striving for at First Baptist."
Somerville has been the pastor of the Washington congregation since July 2000. He holds a master of divinity in preaching and teaching and a Ph.D. in New Testament studies from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He graduated from Georgetown College in Kentucky with a degree in fine art and from the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Before coming to First Baptist, he was pastor of Wingate Baptist Church in Wingate, N.C., for nine years.
Formerly known as "The Protestant Hour," "Day 1" has been broadcast every week for 60 years, winning numerous awards in the process, including the George Foster Peabody Award and the 2003 Crystal Award for Excellence in inspirational radio. It is produced by the Episcopal Media Center and features preachers from CBF, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ.
A television version of "Day 1" also is broadcast Sunday mornings on the Hallmark Channel’s "America at Worship" series.
The executive producer for "Day 1," Peter Wallace, will consult with churches that want to have the radio program broadcast in their community. For more information, call toll free (888) 411-Day-1 or check the program’s Web site, www.Day1.net.
CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.