The first episode of season four of The MacArthur Center podcast—titled Influence—answers a crucial question: What is leadership? Countless books have been written on the topic, but few really understand how someone becomes an effective leader. For more than 55 years, John MacArthur has led a church, a media ministry, a university and seminary through extraordinary change. What qualities have made him an effective leader? How did he grow into his role as a leader? Get answers in this episode as ...
Jun 18, 2025•39 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Since June of 2024, the last time we released an episode, John MacArthur's been in and out of the hospital, dealing with one medical crisis after another. By God's grace, and thanks to the subject of this episode, technology, his health is improving and he is still faithfully pastoring Grace Community Church. As Pastor John recovered at home the weeks before this episode, he spoke to us about the gift of medical technology that preserved his life, and he described how technology has always been ...
Mar 04, 2025•59 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Over the past century, the charismatic movement swept the globe, promising a deeper connection with God, spiritual blessing at every turn, and lots of cash for anyone with enough faith. How did this movement begin? And how has it changed over the decades? This episode answers those questions as it tells the story of one of the movement’s founders and most famous leaders. Then, we’ll tell another story about a woman who rejected the movement and found salvation outside it. Finally, we’ll look at ...
Jun 11, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Of all the theological categories in the Bible, eschatology—the study of things pertaining to the end—may be the most neglected. Otherwise sound and biblical teachers often avoid the topic either because they don’t think the Bible is clear about how the world will end or they don’t think it matters. Through his decades of ministry, John MacArthur has never shied away from teaching the entire Bible, including the prophetic parts. This episode explores what MacArthur actually believes about things...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Over his 55 years as a pastor—and counting—John MacArthur has ministered to thousands of young people. Today, his ministry continues to provide profound value for teenagers and twenty-somethings. Why is that? What does he understand about reaching the next generation? We'll answer that question in this episode. We'll also take a look at the rampant anxiety and depression among teenagers, and how the church can help teens in crisis. We'll try to understand why churches seem desperate to make ever...
Feb 21, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 5
After the study of God’s Word, nothing gives John MacArthur more joy in life and ministry than relationships. For him, being with those of like precious faith infuses his days with meaning, encouragement, and the grace of God. All pastors need to prioritize friendships. This episode looks at the biblical, cosmic scope of friendship, explores the reasons why it has fallen on hard times, and shows why no minister can endure without friends. Along the way, John recounts his unique, life-giving frie...
Nov 21, 2023•38 min•Season 3Ep. 4
If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you probably know someone who used to follow Jesus Christ, but now wants nothing to do with him. Why does that happen? What marks the path from faith to apostasy? John MacArthur started exploring those questions in college, when long-time Christian friends stunned him by walking away from God and into atheism and false religion. What he found is that the path to apostasy is well-trod, dating back to Judas, who rejected Jesus after following him ...
Oct 25, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In 1988, John MacArthur’s book The Gospel According to Jesus stirred no small amount of controversy. By simply looking at what Jesus meant when he said follow me, the book exposed more than one false version of the gospel prominent among evangelicals. This episode takes you back to that pivotal time, a turning point both in John’s ministry and the evangelical church, to show you what it really means to follow Jesus, and why a right understanding of the gospel is essential to an enduring ministry...
Sep 27, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 2
If, like John MacArthur, your ministry is going to endure for more than a half-century, you need to know how to navigate doctrinal disagreements within your local congregation and with other pastors, churches, and Christian leaders. To do that well, you have to know how to prioritize doctrine and practice what’s often been called theological triage. See how John MacArthur has practiced this kind of triage and kept his ministry doctrinally pure by focusing on what he calls the Drivetrain. This is...
Sep 06, 2023•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 1
Who will succeed John MacArthur? Who will carry on the God-centered, biblical-grounded, expository ministry that he’s built over the past half-century? John MacArthur has always had a succession plan. For decades, he’s known exactly how he wants the ministry to carry on at Grace Community Church when he’s gone. This episode looks at his succession plan. It also, with the help of John Piper, Sinclair Ferguson, Tony Reinke, David Gibson, and Geoffrey Chang, explores how any of us who love the chur...
Dec 21, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 8
On July 26th, 2020, California’s government leaders said the worship service at Grace Community Church was an illegal gathering. John MacArthur called it “a peaceful protest.” Why did the church defy the state and county’s health mandates? This episode, the penultimate of season two, goes behind-the-scenes of MacArthur and Grace Church’s lawsuit against Los Angeles County. Beyond that, we go to Washington D.C., then north of the border, and back to a 1975 MacArthur sermon to show that Christians...
Nov 09, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 7
For pastors, criticism comes with the job. It's a reality for nearly everyone in ministry, especially those preaching the whole counsel of God. So how should pastors, or any Christian for that matter, handle the criticism that's sure to come? What do you say when someone accuses you of unbiblical teaching, or unfairly maligns your character? John MacArthur has learned more than a few lessons on how to respond to the critics throughout his 53 years of pastoral ministry. There have been lots of pu...
Oct 19, 2022•58 min•Season 2Ep. 6
If you appreciate John MacArthur’s preaching—particularly how he takes such an in-depth, thorough look at each text—you can thank a Puritan. Who were these men of God from centuries ago? And why do they have a particularly powerful influence not just on MacArthur, but on many of the most effective expositors in the world today? Find out in MacArthur and the Puritans, a bonus episode that previews the Puritan Conference, October 5-7 at Grace Community Church, To register, and see the world-class ...
Sep 07, 2022•14 min
Throughout his ministry, John MacArthur has consistently criticized and condemned the Catholic church and the Pope who leads it. That’s in stark contrast to many evangelicals today who downplay the historical differences between Catholics and Protestants. To explain why John draws a clear line in this debate, this episode visits a slum in Calcutta, India, a small town in 16th century Germany, and a hotel conference room in Florida. Tune in for this journey around the world that looks at the diff...
Aug 24, 2022•52 min•Season 2Ep. 5
In 2009, Time Magazine said Calvinism—or New Calvinism—was one of 10 ideas shaping the world. How did a theological system focused on the majesty and sovereignty of God become a world-changing movement? John MacArthur is part of the answer to that question. This episode explores how John became a Calvinist, how he pulled a generation of young people into the doctrines of grace, and why he eventually criticized the movement he had influenced.
Jun 22, 2022•49 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Few American pastors are more respected, or more influential, in the Russian-speaking world than John MacArthur. His ministry has spread throughout Ukraine and Russia since before the Iron Curtain fell in 1991. During the current war, his ministry continues to have a profound, personal impact through missionary friends, training centers, and ministry partners both in the States and across the former Soviet Union. As this timely episode focuses on John and Grace Community Church’s missions endeav...
Jun 01, 2022•53 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Christians need mentors who have run the race before them. The lives of these leaders influence, challenge and motivate us. John MacArthur is considered a mentor and model by countless Christians and pastors around the world. But who does MacArthur look up to? Who has served as his teacher and friend? In this episode, we look at a man who has influenced MacArthur throughout his ministry: a Welch medical doctor turned preacher who became a kindred spirit. This relationship shows all of us the val...
Apr 01, 2022•53 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Where did John MacArthur come from? What theological heritage shaped him? Was it a denomination, a movement, a school, or a man? Those questions kick off season two of The MacArthur Center podcast. This episode looks specifically at John's father, and the MacArthur's tenuous relationship with the fundamentalist movement. It also dives into the history of that movement, and John's time at Bob Jones University, where this southern California kid accumulated a few demerits at one of the flagship in...
Mar 08, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 1
When John MacArthur was coming of age in the 1950s and 60s, what person, Christian institution, or movement entrusted him with the work of the ministry? And in turn, how has he entrusted the truth to the next generation? Explore who influenced John, and how he's influenced the church, in season 2 of The MacArthur Center podcast. This season is titled The Entrusted: The Convictions and Legacy of John MacArthur. Listen to the trailer and subscribe today. Season 2 launches on Tuesday, March 8th....
Mar 02, 2022•4 min
John MacArthur thought it was an ordinary Tuesday staff meeting, a chance to connect with his friends and fellow pastors at Grace Community Church. But this day in the fall of 1979 was actually the beginning of the greatest crisis of his ministry. Blindsided by betrayal, how did John respond? And how did he survive the coup d'etat? As this bonus episode examines Black Tuesday, it has lessons for all ministry leaders who have faced opposition.
Feb 16, 2022•43 min
For 52 years and counting, John MacArthur has pastored Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. Today, he is an example to all of us—particularly pastors—of perseverance. How has he remained in the arena for all those years? And why hasn’t he thought of retirement? In this final episode of season one, we’ll consider the sum of it all: the portrait of faithful endurance. And we’re going to find out how each of us can have a life and ministry of faithfulness, no matter the length of our d...
Oct 28, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 8
John Donne called them Job's sick days. They are days of unexpected, and often unimaginable, suffering. They are part of life in a fallen world, both for believers and nonbelievers. And they are a constant reality in the life of a preacher. John MacArthur is certainly no stranger to suffering. This episode describes a dark day in the MacArthur family, and how that suffering shaped his life and ministry. And it looks at how John's life and preaching have cared for those in what Samuel Rutherford ...
Oct 14, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Pastor as shepherd. It’s the most common motif for men in the ministry. But pastors are also sheepdogs. They guard the flock that the Chief Shepherd entrusts to them. Throughout his 50 plus years of pastoral ministry, John MacArthur has taken on the role of sheepdog, defending the truth against those who oppose it and protecting God’s people from those who would harm them. This episode focuses on the years 2007-2013, when the flock faced a particular threat, and John defended it in a public way....
Sep 08, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Most Sundays, a faithful expositor preaches the next verse. He doesn’t respond to the headlines or the latest scandal in the Christian world. But every so often, a tragedy in the world—or the church— occupies all the space inside his people’s heads. How does a pastor respond in those crises? This episode looks at sermons John preached after two of the worst calamities of his lifetime. The first was the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks. The second was the downfall of an evangelical celebrity...
Aug 25, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 5
What is the MacArthur style? When John stands in the pulpit, what is he trying to do? Is he projecting an image or making himself relevant? Is he trying to be personable, funny, or cool? This episode looks at what preoccupies MacArthur—and what should preoccupy all expositors—in the pulpit. And in the process, it explains what David and Goliath has to do with $800 sneakers, the meaning of the word glib, and the quest for cool that defines many of America’s most prominent pastors.
Jul 21, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Why did John MacArthur become a preacher? You’ll find the answer on a two-lane Alabama highway, in the pastor’s home where he grew up, in the stern, loving counsel of a mentor named Charles Feinberg, and on the sports fields of John’s youth. As this episode looks at the MacArthur origin story, it will show you how God equipped John, and it will describe the character, gifting, passion, and grit that make a man effective in the pulpit. If you’ve ever wondered if God is preparing you for a lifetim...
Jul 06, 2021•31 min•Season 1Ep. 3
John MacArthur and Robert Schuller both lived in Southern California. Both were pastors. And both were on a bizarre flight from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1979. Even as their lives often intersected, they had opposite priorities and contrasting visions of why the church exists and who it is for. This episode traces those two approaches, from that infamous flight of 1979 through the summer of 2011. Today, one is a cautionary tale for expositors. The other is a model worth following.
Jun 23, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 2
When John MacArthur was 29 years old, he became the pastor of Grace Community Church in the San Fernando Valley, just north of Los Angeles. This episode looks at the humble beginnings of John MacArthur’s pulpit ministry, the ideas that would shape his life’s work, and the truth that would form him as a man and minister.
Jun 08, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 1
As The MacArthur Center for Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary opens its doors, season one of its flagship podcast will tell the surprising, providential, compelling story of how John MacArthur became synonymous with expository preaching. From his first sermon at Grace Community Church on February 9, 1969, through his 52 years of relentless, verse-by-verse exposition from the New Testament, John has modeled a simple idea: that the Bible is clear and the preacher’s task is to patiently...
May 05, 2021•37 sec
