Pastor Ray Lantz – Empowering pulpits, Enriching Souls: Where pastors inspire pastors and parishioners find spiritual nourishment together

When the Future Is in Christ’s Hands

October 14, 2026 by Ray Lantz Leave a Comment

When the Future Is in Christ’s Hands Philippians 4:1-9 20th Sunday after Pentecost Stewardship Sermon September 11, 2026 ...

When Grace Calls Us

October 14, 2026 by Ray Lantz Leave a Comment

When Grace Calls Us Matthew 21:23-32 18th Sunday after Pentecost September 27, 2026 ...

When Grace Feels Unfair

October 14, 2026 by Ray Lantz Leave a Comment

When Grace Feels Unfair Matthew 20:1-16 17th Sunday after Pentecost September 20, 2026 ...

How to Evaluate Information on the Internet

September 30, 2026 by christinefield@sbcglobal.net Leave a Comment

The internet has made it easier to find information about nearly every subject, but availability does not guarantee reliability. Search results can combine government guidance, academic research, professional journalism, personal opinion, advertising, and unsupported claims. Evaluating online material therefore requires more than reading the first result. A careful approach ...

You Have Gained Your Brother

September 7, 2026 by Ray Lantz Leave a Comment

You Have Gained Your Brother Matthew 18:15–20 (NKJV) 15th Sunday after Pentecost Year A 9/6/2026 ...

Ray Lantz is a second-career commissioned pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in sociology, he spent the next 15 years in retail sales and management before he started a flooring store in Champaign- Urbana.

Throughout this time, he was active in the life of his church. Upon the urging of John Oerter and Frank Fisher, both Ministers of the Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA), he became interested in becoming more involved.

In 2014, he was accepted into the commissioned lay pastor program under the watchful eye of the Commission on Ministry of Blackhawk Presbytery.

Upon finishing the program offered through the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in 2016, he was commissioned to a half-time position in Kankakee, IL

Leaving his son in charge of the flooring store, he added another part-time in Gibson City, IL in May of 2018. He was called to be Gibson City’s full-time pastor in January 2019.

In July 2023, he began a new call in Piper City, IL where he is still today.

The goal of this website is to offer to pastors and to interested lay people, audio recordings of sermons written and delivered to the congregations that he has served. Writing 45-50 sermons a year can become a grind, even for the most dedicated of pastors.

Ray has developed a process that entails reading 10,000-20,000 words a week of the very best commentaries.

He lets those marinate for a day or so and then writes an 800-1000 word sermon that is then delivered on Sunday morning.

He follows the Revised Common Lectionary.

The sermons in the seasons of Advent, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter through Pentecost are from the Gospel reading for the week.

The sermon in Ordinary Time after Pentecost until Christ the King Sunday are often from the first reading, or the epistle reading for the week, although he never forgets that every sermon has Jesus as its main focus.

If you are looking for a particular week of the lectionary cycle, Ray has over 300 sermons that will be available on this site.

He will be happy to email the file directly to you. The sermon text is also available for each audio recording.

Just request them through email at pastorray9816 @gmail.com.