“Let all those who are God’s angels — and desire to be honoured as his angels and ambassadors — fulfill the responsibilities of God’s angels, lest (as many men mar a good tale in the telling) they take away the power and majesty of God’s Word in the way they deliver it” (Perkins, The Art …
So Leave the Pots and Pans in the Kitchen
“The preaching of the Word is the testimony of God and the profession of the knowledge of Christ, not of human skill. Furthermore, the hearers ought not to ascribe their faith to the gifts of men, but to the power of God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:1, 2, 5). But this does not mean that pulpits …
Exegetical Restraint
“Note, however, that doctrines ought to be deduced from passages only when it is proper and valid to do so. They must be derived from the genuine meaning of the Scripture. Otherwise we will end up drawing any doctrine from any place in the Bible” (Perkins, The Art of Prophesying, p. 51).
No Other Field
“The Word of God alone is to be preached, in its perfection and inner consistency. Scripture is the exclusive subject of preaching, the only field in which the preacher is to labour” (William Perkins, The Art of Prophesying, p. 9).
What To Do With Sermons of Promise
“After writing sermons for over twenty-five years, I am still amazed at how many times I have to take all my hard work up the mountain of God, where I lay it on an altar and prepare to drive a knife through the heart of it” (Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet, p. 118).
Preaching With a Rolled Up Newspaper
“So the minor poet doesn’t stand in the pulpit to scold the congregation by essentially calling them bad dogs. It is striking how much of contemporary preaching reduces to this: ‘You bad, bad dogs! Look at what you did.’ And those in the pews respectfully cower and look like guilty golden retrievers who know they …
A Close Eye for the Text
“Minor poets so revere the work of the major poets that they assume there are no throwaway lines” (Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet, p. 78).
Who Requires Way Too Much Explaining
“But a minor poet can never take on the role of being the public relations official for Jesus” (Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet, p. 76).
Gratitude Would Be It
“I doubt that there is such a thing as a measure of spirituality, but if there is, gratitude would be it. Only the grateful are paying attention. They are grateful because they pay attention, and they pay attention because they are so grateful” (Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet, p. 64).
The Attractive Soul
“The old seminary professors used to speak about a necessary trait for pastoral ministry called gravitas. It refers to a soul that has developed enough spiritual mass to be attractive, like gravity. It makes the soul appear old, but gravitas has nothing to do with age. It has everything to do with wounds that have …