“So the meeting began with a financial report, which Bill Turner had prepared for them, the bottom line of which looked like somebody had been spraying it with Roundup.”
A Preacher and His Text
“We should extract the sweetness like a bee with a blossom; gnaw it like a dog with a bone; suck it as a child sucks an orange; and chew it as a cow chews its cud.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 57
The Problem with Fat Robins
“She was the kind of woman whose absolute support was freely and completely given, until it gave way like a saturated California hillside. Then it was mostly at the bottom with a car or two underneath. The final event that would cause the hillside to give way might be completely trivial—perhaps a robin landing too heavily—but once the business was underway, well, it was all mostly at the bottom. Chad had clearly and unmistakably lied to her daughter. This was a breach of trust not to be endured. It was clear. It was unambiguous. It was a fat robin. It was clearly time to act.”
And Not What We Would Like It to Have Said
“It is very important that we determine what the text meant when it was first spoken or written. E.D. Hirsch is right to emphasize that ‘a text means what its author meant.’”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 55
Like Dew on the Roses
“What a tangle! Pastoral snarls are like the mercies of God—they are new every morning.”
Which Limits Personal Anecdotes
“And all of us have to preach on death before we have died.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 54
Helps Them Keep Well
“Robert walked out of the 7-Eleven with an order of cheese pump nachos, a hot dog, and a couple of packets of those chocolate thingies with a half-life of seventy-five years”
And With a Look of Stern Admonition
“The best sermons we ever preach to others are those we have first preached to ourselves.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 54
In Big Letters on the Heel
“Because the lead attorney in that firm—Joe Shattuck, Esq.—spoke with a thick Mississippi accent, this always put urban sophisticates off their guard. Shattuck had made a lot of money that way . . . Not that they knew it at the time, but Shattuck had pulled all their shirts up over their heads and rolled all their socks down, creating a little black wool bead around the tops of their expensive Italian shoes. Shattuck, for his part, during a weekly lunch with his partners at a local catfish emporium, was fairly expressive in how he explained what had happened: ‘Those boys couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.’”
Like a Duck on a Placid Pond, Paddling Furiously Below
“Good preachers prepare conscientiously. They study the text, try to explain it clearly, look for examples and apply it to their listeners’ situation. Their sermons may look effortless, yet behind each sermons lies a lifetime of discipline and hard work.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 52