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 have disappointed the master once again” (Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet, p. 100).