“For example, most books on preaching operate on the common assumption that sermonic organization evolves out of the logic of content . . . Truth is, to continue our example, a sermon is not a doctrinal lecture. It is an event-in-time, a narrative art form more akin to a play or novel in shape than …
You Can’t Always Say Everything
“Every good sermon is heresy when judged for all the important truths left untreated” (Fred Craddock, found in Eugene Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. xiv).
For Then Am I Strong
“A man must recognize the significance of his inabilities . . . A major step toward experiencing the power of God necessitates a thorough-going recognition of our lack of it . . . the preacher must recognize, and even revel in, his own human inabilities” (Azurdia, Spirit Empowered Preaching, p. 143)
Because the Spirit Cares What He Wrote
“Christian preachers must never assume that a mutually exclusive decision needs to be made between painstaking exegesis and reliance upon the Spirit” (Azurdia, Spirit Empowered Preaching, p. 141).
And It Shouldn’t Be a .22 Plinker Either
“Preaching, in one sense, merely discharges the firearm that God has loaded in the silent place” (Calvin Miller, as quoted in Azurdia, Spirit Empowered Preaching, p. 131).
Hobbled by Human Inability
“We must live with the painful possibility that the results produced by the Spirit may not be satisfying to us. Here, again, is the occupational vulnerability of preaching. It is to be possessed by a holy compulsion but hobbled by human inability. It be sure, there will be continuous pain for the man called to …
With Nothing Vague About It
“What is this ‘Spirit-filling’? . . . an instantaneous, sudden, and sovereign operation of the Spirit of God coming upon a man so that his proclamation of Jesus Christ might be attended by holy power” (Azurdia, Spirit Empowered Preaching, p. 109).
Without That, Save Your Breath for Walking Up Hills
“Stated simply, the power of the Holy Spirit is the sine qua non of gospel preaching, the one thing without which nothing else matters” (Azurdia, Spirit Empowered Preaching, p. 100).
As In, No Showboating
“This is not to diminish giftedness. This is not to justify indolence. This is not an excuse for a lack of exactness. It is to say that a preacher ought never to preach in a manner that consciously draws attention to himself” (Azurdia, Spirit Empowered Preaching, p. 91).
Quite a Different Thing
“It must be understood that the preacher does not share, he declares” (Azurdia, Spirit Empowered Preaching, p. 88).