“Christ is directly from above and the new birth is from above with equal directness. But from that double point on, Christianity, like general history, operates under the law of creatural causality and by that token becomes a moral process” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, p. 48).
And Hard Wood Burns Longer Than Kleenex
“The danger of formalism is real. Prayers and sermons that are read from a manuscript are usually stiff and unnatural and artificial. But the dangers of spontaneity is also great. If the heart is without passion, it will produce lifeless, jargon-laden spontaneity. And if the heart is aflame, no form will quench it” (Piper, Brothers, …
The Point of Pastoral Pain
“No pastoral suffering is senseless. No pastoral pain is pointless. No adversity is absurd or meaningless. Every heartache has its divine target in the consolation of the saints, even when we feel least useful. How does a pastor’s suffering achieve the consolation and salvation of his flock? The context of Paul’s words suggests the following …
Co-Laborers With God
“What the preacher must be out to do as he exercises his pastoral office in the pulpit, is to be a co-laborer with God in making God’s people more spiritual so that their spiritual life may progressively dominate their natural life in all its earthly relationships” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, p. 43)
Pastoral Ministry as Saving Grace
“For only by feeding on the Word can you grow, and only by growing can you persevere and attain final salvation. A steady diet of gospel messages which do not help the saints grow out of infancy only only stunts their character but also jeopardizes their final salvation” (Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, p. …
The Pastoral Nature of Systematics
“Another reason it is hard to spend hours probinjg for the roots of coherence is that it is fundamentally unfashionable today to systematize things and seek for harmony and unity. This noble quest has fallen on hard times because so much artificial harmony has been discovered by impatient and nervous Bible defenders” (Piper, Brothers, We …
Caring for God’s Children
“Mark it well: the preacher has pastoral charge of God’s children; he must nurture ‘the divine nature’ in them; he must help them to conform to the image of God’s Son. What is a caretaker of animals or even of a garden like Paradise when compared with a shepherd of the flock of God, of …
Poetic Ministry
“The great pressure on us today is to be productive managers. But the need of the church is for prayerful, spiritual poets. I don’t mean (necessarily) pastors who write poems. I mean pastors who feel the weight and glory of eternal reality even in the midst of a business meeting; who carry in their soul …
Growth From the Outside
“But man’s life, being finite, does not have its ground within itself and therefore is not sufficient unto itself, either ontologically or developmentally. In other words, it needs something extraneous to itself to be itself and to become itself more and more; that is, to grow” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, p. 34).
Wine Instead of Dish Water
“This is the ultimate foundation for Christian hedonism and profoundly shapes a pastor’s pulpit ministry. As Christian hedonists we know that every listener longs for happiness. And we will never tell them to deny or repress that desire. Their problem is not that they want to be satisfied but that they are far too easily …