Quotes About Preaching

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.

The lust for slave profits engulfed even some of the priests, who abandoned their preaching, took black women as concubines, kept slaves themselves, and sold their students and converts into slavery.

So many people come to church with the genuine desire to hear what we have to say, yet they are always going back home with the uncomfortable feeling that we're making it too difficult for them to come to Jesus. Are we determined to have nothing to do with all these people? They are convinced that it is not the Word Jesus himself that puts them off, but the superstructure of human, institutional, and doctrinal elements in our preaching.

To-day if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Heb. 4:7). That is evangelical preaching. Is this ruthless speed? Nothing could be more ruthless than to make men think there is still plenty of time to mend their ways. To tell men that the cause is urgent, and that the kingdom of God is at hand is the most charitable and merciful act we can perform, the most joyous news we can bring.

The gospel is not to take the form of hole-in-the-corner sectarianism, it must be set forth by public preaching.

What is at stake is by no means the question of whether our German members of congregations can still tolerate church fellowship with the Jews. It is rather the risk of Christian preaching to say: here is the church, where Jew and German stand together under the Word of God; here is the proof whether a church is still the church or not.

Let the men eaten up with activity," he says, "and who imagine they are able to shake the world with their preaching and other outward works, stop and reflect a moment. It will not be difficult for them to understand that they would be much more useful to the Church and more pleasing to the Lord, not to mention the good example they would give to those around them, if they devoted more time to prayer and to the exercises of the interior life.

15 Por último les dijo: Vayan por todo el mundo: prediquen el Evangelio a todas las criaturas. 16 El que creyere, y se bautizare, se salvará; pero el que no creyere, será condenado. 17 A los que creyeren, acompañarán estos milagros: En mi nombre lanzarán los demonios; hablarán nuevas lenguas; 18 manosearán las serpientes; y si algún licor venenoso bebieren, no les hará daño; pondrán las manos sobre los enfermos, y quedarán éstos curados. 19

Ministers should be very wary that they do not bring forth fuel to feed the fears and doubts of weak Christians in their preaching and writing, for it is a great part of their work to arm weak Christians against their fears and weaknesses.

The Queen of Heaven informed him: "Wonder not that until now you [St. Dominic] have obtained so little fruit by your labors; you have spent them on a barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of divine grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth, he began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore, preach my Psalter."1

Too often, we fall into the trap of preach­ing the gospel to adults and the law to chil­dren: "God wants you to be good boys and girls." It is not that there is no truth in that state­ment, but with­out the right con­text and qual­i­fi­ca­tions it is a recipe for hope­less­ness.

Jerry Vines finished preaching through the Bible at First Baptist Jacksonville, Florida. He completed his series through every book of the Bible by preaching through the book of Deuteronomy, farewell messages from Moses to the people of God. For his closing message at First Baptist, Jacksonville, he walked toward the back of the worship center in Jacksonville still preaching.

When my dad returned to preaching, I thought we moved because God would tell my dad it was time to move. He studied to be an adolescent therapist, learning how to reach that brain. Because he was such a good storyteller, he could tug at the heart, too. He'd make people weep, holding up their hands as they listened to him share the Word in a way they had never heard. Even as a kid I could feel the energy of change in the room when my dad was working.

So it is that much homiletical advice tends to function in reverse—that is, it works reasonably well in evaluating a sermon already formed, but provides very little help en route!

Whatever the thinking of Prof. Lowry and his editor, they obviously share the conviction that The Homiletical Plot can sit comfortably on the shelf with the scores of books on preaching since 1980.

I noted a second time appreciation for the author's making room for intuition in the sermon process. Most of us give lip service to the fact that preaching is an art as well as a science, but then we become afraid that someone will think we speak of preaching as an art as an excuse for ambiguity, sloppy thinking, and poor reasoning. In defense, we omit all art and artistry and proceed to offer the reader an adequate technology for framing and delivering the message.

A sermonic idea is a homiletical bind; a sermon is a narrative plot!

One might say that any sermon involves both an "itch" and a "scratch" and sermons are born when at least implicitly in the preacher's mind the problematic itch intersects a solutional scratch—between the particulars of the human predicament and the particularity of the gospel.

diagnosis is central to our homiletical task.

But the three hundred and sixty-five authors who try to write new fairy tales are very tiresome. They always begin with a little boy or girl who goes out and meets the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms: 'Flowers and fruits, and other winged things.' These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and succeed.

Preaching is not talking to people about the Bible; it is talking to people about themselves from the Bible.

A sixty-hour workweek will not compensate for a poorly delivered sermon. People don't show up on Sunday morning because I am a good pastor (leader, shepherd, counselor). Ironically, my pastoring skills have almost nothing to do with my success as a pastor! In my world, it is my communication skills that make the difference. So that is where I focus my time.

Preaching for life change requires far less information and more application. Less explanation and more inspiration. Less first century and more twenty-first century.

In an age when everyone else is terribly concerned with political correctness, my husband's preaching is uncommonly blunt. Perhaps that's the secret of his success.