Preaching: As you preach in your own pulpit here, what do you carry with you? Do you take notes or write out a manuscript?

Falwell: All the time, when I hear something that is interesting to me I write it down and stick it in my pocket. Then when I get home at night I put it in a document. For example, at the lunch table today Dr. Rawlings gave a definition of contemporary fundamentalism and what it must be; he said that a contemporary fundamentalist must be consistent in doctrine, moderate in attitude, progressive in methodology, and liberal in spirit. So I wrote that down.

Then I take all these notes. Like anybody else I have the most current Bible study software — every commentary, every Bible translation that I use — and I build the information. It may be towards something down the road that I will come back to later but I am constantly building frameworks for sermons. Then something will happen today that becomes the catalyst for doing it next Sunday.

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It is not easy when we have 24,000 members here. We have seven services on Sunday: five in the morning and two on Sunday night. We only seat something over 3,000 at a time so it is in-and-out, in-and-out. We use our inner city church, and we use Liberty with a campus pastor who's a Thomas Roader, and a lot of Thomas Road people will come here — the younger ones especially who like a little better tempo music than we permit at the church. I usually preach the 8:30 and 11 am and 6 pm. I preach three times a day on Sundays. We are relocating the church here to Liberty Mountain. We are building a 12,000-seat sanctuary starting this year.

I am always preparing sermons. I am listening to everybody from John Maxwell to Bailey Smith. My wife reads to me every night 'til I fall asleep; she is a prolific reader and I bring home at least a book a day because I do interviews on Listen America. I did Henry Kissinger one week, Sam Donaldson the next, Larry King the next, Geraldo Rivera the next. This last week I did David Horowitz. And they all have books and I will bring those home and I'll peruse the index and chapter headings. Then I will ask her to read chapter 3 and chapter 4. And then I build that. So I am constantly reading newspapers, magazines, having books read to me by my wife and others while travelling. I get sick while reading in motion so I have others read to me. The minute I hear something good I make a note.

We try to take the newest books. If anybody were to ask me what's the last book you read it would be probably the best seller from yesterday. There might be two pages in the book that are worthwhile or one thought, one idea. But at 69 I try to stay relevant and try to stay cutting edge. We have 6,000 sharp kids here and you can't razzle dazzle them. I speak to them every week at least once, sometimes twice — the whole student body. I have to keep them challenged, on the edge of their seats. That demands a lot of study, a lot of preparation. They are not impressed with shouting, jokes, that stuff — they laugh at you, not with you. We bring speakers in sometimes to try something that worked at the church. But the kids have been there, done that. It can be a tough crowd.