Preaching Without Walls: An Interview with Ralph Douglas West

Ralph Douglas West is the founding pastor of The Church Without Walls (Brookhollow Baptist Church) in Houston, which has grown over the past two decades from 32 members to more than 21,000. West will be one of the featured preachers at the 2009 National Conference on Preaching in Tampa, Florida. Recently he sat down with Preaching editor Michael Duduit to discuss his own approach to preaching.

Preaching: I love the name of your church—The Church Without Walls. Where did that name come from?

West: Well, I actually thought I was being clever. I preached a sermon 20 years ago from the Book of Acts, and I used this riff where I referred to how the church met door-to-door or house-to-house outside. And I stumbled across the phrase, "It was a church without walls." I actually thought I was being very clever at that moment. I later discovered that it was a term that missiologists would often use; one of the mission professors at Princeton, back I think in 1956, wrote a little book on missions entitled The Church Without Walls. And Peterson wrote a book on the church without walls. So I used it then as being a validation that I at least had tradition and history on my side, that it was a good, biblical, ecclesiological term.

Preaching: It says something about your church, too, in terms of its role in the community.

West: Yes, it does. One of the themes that it highlights is that it’s limitless in possibility, and beyond that it’s open to all people. We use these terms "open to all people"—they sound catchy and ecclesiological and evangelical. We get to certain places, and it’s anything but open to all people. But "all people" means just that—socioeconomic backgrounds, different gender, cultures, people with different beliefs and ideas. And hopefully those people who come would be transformed by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not trying to make them into "Church Without Walls" people but to truly make them citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Preaching: Tell me about your church.

West: Our church celebrated 20 years in November of 2007. We began with 32 people. It was during a very critical time in my life. I was 27 years old, and I was going through a very bad church fight. I mean, it makes me shudder to think how bad it was at times.

Now, the irony of it is you would think if it was that bad it had to be something significant that we were fighting about. But we were fighting over trees and carpets. It really came down to a battle about pastoral leadership over tradition. I was called to a church 86 miles east of Houston in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area. I really thought that would be a good way to get out. It felt like a dignified way to transition.

To be honest, I would have left for any reason. I told my wife, "We can go here, save enough money and pack up and leave." That was actually my intention. And during the process I spent a significant time in prayer. I had nothing.