“If a preacher is not a man of his age, in sympathy with its spirit, his preaching fails”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 40
Unlike Other People
“Professors like to talk about themselves, and so the key was to ask them to talk about themselves”
Ecochondriacs, p. 71
The Space That Beans Take Up
“When they had moved from Choctaw Valley, Trevor had settled into his studies easily, and found that full-time load, given his energy levels, was really only about half time, and because his was a personality that was full of beans, with scarcely room left for one more bean, he saw right away that he would have to find some edifying way to fill up the remainder of his time”
Ecochondriacs, p. 69
A Respectable Outlet
“Jill was an avid baseball fan, and was there at the stadium using up her season tickets as often as her schedule permitted. ‘It gives me an opportunity to yell at people without incurring any societal disapproval,’ she said. ‘That’s an argument,’ Larry said”
Ecochondriacs, p. 62
Don’t Forget the Point
“. . . preaching about Christ as distinct from preaching Christ. There are many preachers who seem to do nothing else, always discussing Christianity as a problem instead of announcing Christianity as a message, and proclaiming Christ as a Savior”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 35
Overstated, But Only Slightly
“Where application begins, there the sermon begins”
Charles Spurgeon, as quoted in Olford, Anointed Expository Preaching, p. 251
Which Is the Usual Tell
“Larry jumped to his feet to follow her, and Eve noticed how quick and cat-like he was. Big cat. But when he disappeared from her line of sight, she cocked an ear for a moment. There was no indication, faint or loud, of anything like fee fi fo fum”
Ecochondriacs, pp. 59-60
Use the Wide-Angle Lens
“I think that it would give to our preaching just the quality which it appears to me to most lack now. That quality is breadth. I do not mean liberality of thought, nor tolerance of opinion, nor anything of that kind. I mean largeness of movement, the great utterance of great truths, the great enforcement of great duties, as distinct from the minute, and subtle, and ingenious treatment of little topics, side issues of the soul’s life, bits of anatomy, the bric-a-brac of theology”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 32
When a Fat Face is Called For
“‘Oh, deadly serious. No God, above us, only sky. It seems that boinking nubile young dopes would be just the ticket. If morality is just a social construct, one has to admire that kind of clear-headed behavior. And in a Christian school, too.’ Marcie just stared. Jill looked back at her with her very best fat face. And, as fat faces go, it was a pretty good one”
Ecochondriacs, p. 59
Missed Opportunity
“Of the three women, the one who was out in front and apparently the spokesman for them all could have been attractive if she had wanted to be, or she used to be attractive, or something of that nature. The other two were in a different category entirely. They looked like nothing on earth”
Ecochondriacs, p. 57