Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning. – Bill Gates (quoted in Chicago Tribune, Jan. 13, 1997)
A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world – and might even be more difficult to save. – C.S. Lewis
We have supplanted:
• Prophets with performers, who lack God's power, perseverance and purpose.
• Pastors with promoters, who often confuse an organization with the Kingdom of God, and who promote an organization with church-growth techniques, and neglect the Growth of the Kingdom of God.
• Proclaiming the truth with prattling trivialities, which amuse and entertain, and which sometimes stimulate and excite, but which do not challenge or transform.
• Preaching with propaganda embracing a false eschatology, which looks for Christ's peace to be produced by a political process, rather than by righteous and separated living.
• Piety with pretense, which replaces sanctification and substance with superficiality and success.
- James L. Holly, M.D.For a society that’s secular by law, America is a very religious place. Virtually all Americans say they believe in God; 90% say religion is important in their lives; 72% pray every day. – April 1, 1996, USA TODAY
I certainly don’t think that the death required that “ye be born again,” is the death of reason…One of the effects of modern liberal Protestantism has been gradually to turn religion into poetry and therapy, to make truth vaguer and vaguer and more and more relative, to banish intellectual distinctions, to depend on feeling instead of thought, and gradually to come to believe that God has no power, that he cannot communicate with us, cannot reveal himself to us, indeed has not done so, and that religion is our own sweet invention. – Flannery O’Connor in Habit of Being
Religion in our time has been captured by the tourist mindset. Religion is understood as a visit to an attractive site to be made when we have adequate leisure. For some it is a weekly jaunt to church. For others, occasional visits to special services. – Eugene Peterson in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (quoted in Sharing the Practice, Spr 1996, page 1)
Too much of our orthodoxy is correct and sound, but like words without a tune, it does not glow and burn; it does not stir the heart; it has lost its hallelujah. One man with a genuine glowing experience with God is worth a library full of arguments. – Vance Havner
We have found hundreds that have allowed the “system” to overshadow the Savior…This is not Biblical and it is weakening the church wherever we find it…It’s not new…Jesus had to ask Peter three times, “Lovest thou me more than these?”…consider this seriously…when the system overshadows the Savior you have a sickness that demands serious surgery…God is now performing some of this surgery in His church…Some will recover to shine and bless…some will be laid aside never to be heard from again…a host of others will just plain die leaving no fruit behind them. – Rev. Don Miller
Give up your good Christian life and follow Christ. – Garrison Keillor (quoted in Salt of the Earth, Sept/Oct 1996. Pg. 35)
Religion
Teamwork can't come without leadership. Leadership won't work without a team.
- Michael Catt
Teamwork
We must not be issue driven. We must be driven by the text. We should always, in our preaching, point to Jesus and have a passion for Jesus. – Michael Catt
Preaching
On the tallest mountain in the French Alps, there is a Half-way Inn (dry, warm, food, drink, comfortable seating) 90% of those who want to climb this mountain stop at the Inn – never making it to the top of the mountain.
Regret will set in, restless, disappointed, tired.
It hurts to climb!
It is luxurious inside the café/inn!
There is a danger of stopping at the Inn – get comfortable – never make it up the mountain to the peak. You will miss the splendor of being on the tallest peak! – from a lecture by Jay Strack at SLU 101
Mediocrity
Lordship settles all other issues. – Michael Catt
Lordship
Pick a way through the jungle of mediocrity and cut a path. Lead the way from ambiguity to clarity. Lead the way through the maze of post modern thinking back to the safety of absolutes.
– Michael Catt
Leadership
If you don't know, don't go. If God hasn't spoken yet, it's not time. – Michael Catt
There were many times when I thought I heard the Lord speak, but when I did hear the Lord speak, I didn't think...I knew. – Manley Beasley
God’s Will
I don't know all I should know about the end times. I don't know that I can fully explain the different theological views regarding the coming of Christ and the tribulation. I can't tell you what the meaning of 666 is, but I do know that the church is sick, sick, sick and in need of repentance. - Michael Catt
End Times
Nothing affects the church more than attitude. Someone has said, "It's hard to be a smart cookie with a crummy attitude." I say, “It's hard to lead people to be positive when you see the dark lining in every cloud, the problem in every opportunity and the obstacles on every road.”
– Michael Catt
Attitude
How will I ever know God is my hiding place until I am being pursued by an enemy? How will I ever know God as my portion, unless I feel threatened? How will I ever know God has my Father unless I have felt abandoned? How will I ever know God as my deliverer, unless I am willing to step out of the boat by faith? – Michael Catt
Adversity
Great sermons take place when flint strikes steel. When the flint of a person’s problem strikes the steel of the Word of God, you get a spark, and the spark with burn. Some sermons are too “flinty”: they’re all problem and not much Scripture. Others are all steel and no flint: they are strong on the Bible but stop short of challenging people’s lives. What we want is some combination of the eternal Word of God striking people where they live. Preachers who can do that have a better chance of reaching the audience today and in years to come. – Haddon Robinson (in Reformed Worship, June 1996, page 17)
Not a little preaching is much more imposition than exposition. – W. Graham Scroggie (#11, Mar. 4, 1957)
My job is not to try to make the Bible relevant; I show them them how relevant it is. That’s not picking at words. Relevance comes from the text itself. In the final analysis, “Thus says the Lord” speaks for itself.
One of my mentors used to say two things that I still remember to this day: You haven’t given the gospel until you’ve given people something to believe, and you haven’t truly preached Christ until you have mentioned by name the cross of Christ. That’s convicting. – Charles Swindoll
O sirs, how plainly, how closely, how earnestly, should we deliver a message of such moment as ours, when the everlasting life or everlasting death of our fellow-men is involved in it! …there [is] nothing more unsuitable to such a business, than to be slight and dull. What! Speak coldly for God, and for men’s salvation? Can we believe that our people must be converted or condemned, and yet speak in a drowsy tone? In the name of God, brethren, labour to awaken your own hearts, before you go to the pulpit, that you may be fit to awaken the hearts of sinners…Oh, speak not one cold or careless word about so great a business as heaven or hell. Whatever you do, let the people see that you are in good earnest…A sermon full of mere words, how neatly soever it be composed, while it wants the light of evidence, and the life of zeal, is but an image or a well-dressed carcass. – Richard Baxter in The Reformed Pastor (1656); abridged edition (1829).
The foolishness of preaching has been replaced by the fine art of telling funny stories. The compulsion to soul-winning has been replaced by the compulsion to promote denominational programs. Means and methods may stand in direct opposition to God’s will and way. Let us not revert to nonspiritual means to carry out God’s will. – Donald Wilton, evangelist and professor of preaching, New Orleans Seminary
To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal. – Simone Weil
Psychologists tell us that all people perceive change as loss. Preachers are asking people to change their attitudes, their lifestyle, and how they spend their money. One of the first questions people ask is, “What will I lose as a result of this change?” – Bruce Larson
It has been said that good expository preaching contains three elements: explanation, illustration, and application. It has also been said that this preaching appeals to three areas: the intellect, emotions, and will. 1 Thessalonians 2:11 sums these elements as follows: “As ye know how we exhorted (intellect) and comforted (emotions) and charged (will) every one of you,…” Does anyone have any further thoughts on these concepts? – Calvin Miller
Each time I go into the pulpit I go as if it were my first time, as if it could be my best time and as if it might be my last time. – Vance Havner
If you don’t have a reference point, there is no use talking. My reference point is the Bible. Be open minded. The Bible doesn’t argue the existence of God, it proves the existence of God. – Billy Graham
I’ve heard a lot of sermons in the past 10 years or so that make me want to get up and walk out. They’re secular, psychological, self-help sermons. Friendly, but of no use. They didn’t make you straighten up. They didn’t give you anything hard…At some point and in some way, a sermon has to direct people toward the death of Christ and the campaign that God has waged over the centuries to get our attention. – Garrison Keillor
Preaching
When a man prepares expository sermons, God prepares the man. Ultimately God is more interested in developing messengers than messages, and since the Holy Spirit confronts man primarily through the Bible, a preacher must learn to listen to God before he speaks for Him. – Haddon Robinson, quoted in Voice, Nov/Dec 1997, pg. 26
Poets are caretakers of language, the shepherds of words, keeping them from harm, exploitation, misuse. Words not only mean something; they are something, each with a sound and rhythm all its own… I also am in the word business. I preach, I teach, I counsel using words. People often pay particular attention on the chance that God may be using my words to speak to them. I have a responsibility to use words accurately and well. But it isn’t easy. I live in a world where words are used carelessly by some, cunningly by others. – Eugene H. Peterson, in Living the Message
The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not “What a lovely sermon!” but “I will do something.” – Francis de Sales
Preach not because you have to say something, but because you have something to say. – Apophthegms
Ministers know they can get a lot of preaching done if they are content to thunder vagaries. If Jesus had only mentioned the traditions of men without getting into the particulars, He would not have generated the hostility He did. – Doug Wilson, (in Tabletalk, Jul 1997, pg. 59)
When the counselor prepares himself for speaking, let him bear in mind with what diligent caution he ought to speak, lest, if he is too hurried in speaking, the hearts of hearers be struck with the wound of error. – Gregory the Great
One of the proofs of the divinity of our gospel is that it has survived the preaching. – Woodrow Wilson
We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports, or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise, but an ultimatum. – A. W. Tozer, quoted in PrayerNet Newsletter, Feb. 21, 1997
People come to church to have confirmed what they think they already know. It is almost impossible, therefore, to resist making the sermon serve to confirm our experience rather than to challenge the presumption that we even understand what it is we assume we have experienced. – Stanley Hauerwas (quoted in Clergy Journal, Nov/Dec 1996, pg. 18)
A preacher joked that he had learned to preach by practicing in jails and nursing homes: “In one they can’t leave, and in the other they can’t hear!” – Ray Jones, San Antonio, Texas
Let’s stop wasting pulpit time with pop psychology and after-dinner pep talks! I don’t insist that all sermons be expository (though I expect it in heaven), but at least let them have biblical and theological content. Most parishioners will get just about all their doctrinal teaching in church. Religious publishing may be doing well, but tapes, CDs, and light devotional reading keep their cash registers ringing, not commentaries and doctrinal studies. We’ve got to learn from the pulpit. – Howard Cogswell (Wesleya Advocate, Nov. 1996, pg. 23)
If only we could realize that our purpose [as pastors] is to be caretakers. We are responsible for leading our flock to the place where the grass is green, but it is up to them to eat! We cannot be responsible for how much they digest. We cannot make people mature. – T.D. Jakes (Ministries Today, Nov/Dec 1996, pg. 24).
When a man prepares expository sermons, God prepares the man. Ultimately God is more interested in developing messengers than messages, and since the Holy Spirit confronts man primarily through the Bible, a preacher must learn to listen to God before he speaks for Him. – Haddon Robinson, quoted in Voice, Nov/Dec 1997, pg. 26
Poets are caretakers of language, the shepherds of words, keeping them from harm, exploitation, misuse. Words not only mean something; they are something, each with a sound and rhythm all its own… I also am in the word business. I preach, I teach, I counsel using words. People often pay particular attention on the chance that God may be using my words to speak to them. I have a responsibility to use words accurately and well. But it isn’t easy. I live in a world where words are used carelessly by some, cunningly by others. – Eugene H. Peterson, in Living the Message
The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not “What a lovely sermon!” but “I will do something.” – Francis de Sales
Preach not because you have to say something, but because you have something to say. – Apophthegms
Ministers know they can get a lot of preaching done if they are content to thunder vagaries. If Jesus had only mentioned the traditions of men without getting into the particulars, He would not have generated the hostility He did. – Doug Wilson, (in Tabletalk, Jul 1997, pg. 59)
When the counselor prepares himself for speaking, let him bear in mind with what diligent caution he ought to speak, lest, if he is too hurried in speaking, the hearts of hearers be struck with the wound of error. – Gregory the Great
One of the proofs of the divinity of our gospel is that it has survived the preaching. – Woodrow Wilson
We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports, or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise, but an ultimatum. – A. W. Tozer, quoted in PrayerNet Newsletter, Feb. 21, 1997
People come to church to have confirmed what they think they already know. It is almost impossible, therefore, to resist making the sermon serve to confirm our experience rather than to challenge the presumption that we even understand what it is we assume we have experienced. – Stanley Hauerwas (quoted in Clergy Journal, Nov/Dec 1996, pg. 18)
A preacher joked that he had learned to preach by practicing in jails and nursing homes: “In one they can’t leave, and in the other they can’t hear!” – Ray Jones, San Antonio, Texas
Let’s stop wasting pulpit time with pop psychology and after-dinner pep talks! I don’t insist that all sermons be expository (though I expect it in heaven), but at least let them have biblical and theological content. Most parishioners will get just about all their doctrinal teaching in church. Religious publishing may be doing well, but tapes, CDs, and light devotional reading keep their cash registers ringing, not commentaries and doctrinal studies. We’ve got to learn from the pulpit. – Howard Cogswell (Wesleya Advocate, Nov. 1996, pg. 23)
If only we could realize that our purpose [as pastors] is to be caretakers. We are responsible for leading our flock to the place where the grass is green, but it is up to them to eat! We cannot be responsible for how much they digest. We cannot make people mature. – T.D. Jakes (Ministries Today, Nov/Dec 1996, pg. 24).
Preaching