“We must search for simple words which our listeners will understand, vivid words which will help them to picture what we are saying and honest words which tell the plain truth without exaggeration.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 62
And Neither Can They Preach Them
“An unstructured sermon is like a jellyfish, all flesh and no bones. However, a sermon whose structure is too noticeable is like a skeleton, all bones and no flesh. Neither jellyfish nor skeletons made good sermons.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 60
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
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
Which Limits Personal Anecdotes
“And all of us have to preach on death before we have died.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 54
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
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
Until Everyone Sees It
“The ultimate obstacle to study is, frankly, laziness. Was it Ralph Waldo Emerson who said that people are as lazy as they dare to be? It is true. And we pastors can be as guilty as anyone else because our work is usually unsupervised. We have few set tasks and no set times to do them, and are left to organize our own schedules. So it is possible for us to fritter our days away until our lives sink into indiscipline and laziness becomes painfully obvious to others”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 50.
But Blue Highlighters are the Best
“Every reader of books develops his own practice of marking, underlining or note-taking”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 48
Know the Congregation
“The best preachers are always diligent pastors, who know their congregations and the people of their area.”
Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, p. 45