A Baptist pastor with a deep thirst for the Bible has reportedly broken an unofficial record by preaching for 96 hours at his church in Jones County, Mississippi.
Pastor Matt Olson of First Baptist Church of Sharon recently preached through the entire Bible from the book of Genesis to Revelation over a four-day period, Fox News reported Sunday.
“Jesus is Lord. He is worthy of every sentence I preached, every sacrifice that was made, and every step of obedience that has been taken since,” Olson told the outlet, noting it was all about proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The pastor and his team used the Guinness World Record format, and WDAM reported June 1 that Olson took minimal breaks during the preaching marathon.
Video footage from Protestia showed Olson’s concluding statement when he declared, “Jesus is worthy.” The congregation then gave him a standing ovation:
Olson was inspired after participating in missionary training for hostile areas in 2025 where he was in the woods without a physical copy of the Bible for 96 hours. During that time, the pastor longed for the scriptures and was forced to rely only on what he remembered from its pages.
“Olson said that while the church followed Guinness World Record guidelines, they chose not to submit the achievement for official verification, explaining that they did not want the Bible to be used as a publicity gimmick. He also said that securing an official adjudicator under Guinness’s non-profit tier carries a steep $16,500 price tag, and they didn’t believe that would be a wise use of money,” the Fox article read.
Another clip showed how Olson’s voice was strong in the beginning, but even though it was tough and his voice was somewhat strained toward the end, he kept preaching:
Olson’s preaching marathon was reminiscent of evangelist George Whitefield whose sermons deeply influenced colonial America during the Great Awakening, according to the Christian History Institute.
Whitefield often preached numerous times a week and spent nearly 50 hours in the pulpit. He gave approximately 18,000 sermons during his lifetime, sometimes speaking with such intensity that he became ill.
Following his sermon marathon, Olson said, “The Word of God is truth… and it’s sufficient. It is what sustained me for 96 hours when, physically, I should not have continued to… no one should be able to do that.”
According to his church’s website, Olson’s “greatest joy is preaching and teaching the Word of God.”