Preaching in a Whole New World

“Our work always begins with a burden. Pastors have known this for a long time. Sermons always begin with a burden. At least, the good ones do. Some sermons are preached simply because it’s Sunday morning and the preacher has to say something, but the best sermons start as dull aches in the chest, like a toothache in the soul that won’t go away.”

Don’t Read the Bible on Shuffle

“The Bible is like that. It’s not a random anthology of inspiring bits that you can read in any order. It’s a single, sweeping narrative about how the living God makes and keeps his promises to save sinners. And yet the irony is that, for most Christians, the only way they have been taught to read the Bible is by putting it on shuffle.”

D. A. Carson’s Tribute to an Ordinary Pastor (His Dad)

“Most of us, however, serve in more modest patches. Most pastors will not regularly preach to thousands, let alone tens of thousands. They will not write influential books, they will not supervise large staffs, and they will never see more than modest growth.”