“Half a truth is often more jealous of the other half than of an error.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 195
Familial, Not Casual
“Christian worship ought to be familial and reverent, which is quite a different thing than the very common ‘come as you are’ approach, the come to church in your jammies approach . . . The triune God really ought to be worshiped with more than one or two chords.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, pp. 137-138
Truth, Not Appearances
“He is saved from one of the great temptations of the ministry who goes out to his work with a clear and constant certainty that truth is always strong no matter how weak it looks, and falsehood is always weak, no matter how strong it looks.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 193
Ephemeral, That’s the Word
“Our lives are a mist, a vapor, a bit of cloud in the mountains.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 135
Preaching High and Inside
“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