“There are people who go to respectable churches because it seems like a good place to network with people who might want to buy insurance.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 12
Maxwell’s Hammer
“We have a perennial temptation to locate sin as resident in the stuff. Some refuse to see sin in the stuff, and therefore conclude there must not be any sin. Those are the technophiles. Others see clearly that there is sin, and so they conclude that it must be in the stuff, though maybe it is not in the earlier stuff. These are the technophobes . . . Maxwell’s silver hammer did come down upon somebody’s head, but we go astray when we blame the silver hammer. The problem was in Maxwell.”
Ploductivity, p. 10
What the Building Says
“When the saints start to come in for the service, the building should say, ‘Shhh . . . the church is here now.’ The saints should not say, ‘Shhh . . . you’re in church now. The building is not God’s mausoleum”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 9
At Least a Rough Idea
“Always have the topic if your sermon in your mind as long as possible before you begin your preparation. Whatever else is hasty and extemporaneous, let it not be your decision as to what you will preach about.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 121
Chrestomathy Template
“Is it possible to be both relaxed and driven? People who are only relaxed are frequently slackers, and much of the book of Proverbs would appear to apply to them. But people who are driven give a diligent work ethic a bad name. Nobody wants to be like that. We might admire the house they can afford, but nobody wants to be like the people who live in it.”
Ploductivity, p. 7
Aim With the Gun, Not at It
“Care not for your sermon, but for your truth, and for your people; and subjects will spring up on every side of you and the chances to preach upon them will be all too few . . . If you have anything to say, and say it bravely and simply, men will come to hear you.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 119
Take Off, Put On
“If we are to put on the white robe called Jesus, there are certain foul rags that we have to take off in order to do so.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 7
Be Not Refined Overmuch
“Never tolerate any idea of the dignity of a sermon which will keep you from saying anything in it which you ought to say, or which your people ought to hear. It is the same folly as making your chair so fine that you dare not sit down in it.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 118
Overgrown Shoeboxes
“A basic truism of modern design is that form follows function. This is self-evidently true, but the reason modern men have found themselves living, working, and worshiping in overgrown shoeboxes is that we have allowed ourselves to drift into a truncated and reductionist view of what our actual function as human beings truly is.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 7
Empty Man or False Notion
“I can conceive of but two things which should cause the preacher any difficulty in regard to the abundance of subjects for his preaching. The first is the sterility of his own mind, the second is a stilted and unnatural idea of what the sermon he is going to write must be.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 117