“Say nothing which you do not believe to be true because you think it may be helpful. Keep back nothing which you know to be true because you think it may be harmful.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 192
Pick Two
“For any new construction, there are three basic elements to the project. Take the square footage, take the quality of design and materials, and take the dollar amount to be spent. Those are the three corners of your triangle. As you look at those three elements, you may pick any two, and the two you pick will determine the third for you.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p.133
The Point is the Point
“The sermon is to be sacrificed to the soul, the system of work to the purpose of work always. It strikes at the root of all clerical fastidiousness and the tyranny of order.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 191
To Understate It a Bit
“Had God not sent them around, the world would have seen a rather gaudy display of my ongoing administrative skills, which would have put them in mind of the crash of the Hindenburg.”
Ploductivity, p. 110
Four Options Remember
“We are told that it is better to have a little money and fear of the Lord than to have lots of wealth and big trouble with it (Prov. 15:16). We are also told that thin soup and thick love is better than a sumptuous meal and hatred around the table (Prov. 15:17). It is better to be humble and with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud (Prov. 16:19).”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 131
Already Enthroned
“Another way of thinking about this is that we are not conducting a presidential campaign, trying to get as many people as possible to vote for Jesus, so that if we are successful, then He can assume a position of authority. No, His position is already one of conquering monarch, and He is already on the throne . . . The Kingdom of God is not a democracy.”
Ploductivity, p. 107
True Doctrine Scans
“Every true preacher must be a poet . . . A belief in the Incarnation, in the divine Son of Man, makes such poets of us all.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 187
Lord of the Tools
“Jesus is the Lord of history, which means His authority extends from Adam’s first honeycomb stick, at the beginning, down to the last tool invented, which will probably be something like a transport barge for hauling radioactive waste to be dumped into the sun. It’ll be totally safe. We did tests and everything.”
Ploductivity, p. 104
Just One Future
“So we need to remember that the eschatological future promised by the prophet Isaiah, and the future that was shaped by the industrial revolution and will continue to be shaped by the digital revolution, are the same future. I don’t believe in an invisible spiritual future, shaped by the Holy Spirit, full of sweetness and light, and an actual historical future shaped by the Devil, Halliburton, the Illuminati, and Murphy’s law. The world, this world, is presently going where Jesus is taking it. So we should be wise, and stop worrying.”
Ploductivity, pp. 98-99
The Worth of Souls
“There is a power which lies at the center of all success in preaching, and whose influence reaches out to the circumference, and is essential everywhere . . . Where it is largely present it is wonderful how many deficiencies count for nothing . . . Without this power preaching is almost sure to become either a struggle of ambition or burden of routine. With it preaching is an ever fresh delight. The power is the value of the human soul, felt by the preacher, and inspiring all his work.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 183