The Foolishness Preaching
from the cant-make-this-stuff-up
dept.
Here's a quote by Robert Farrar Capon, from his
book, The
Foolishness of
Preaching:
I think good preachers should be like bad kids. They ought to be naughty enough to tiptoe up on dozing congregations, steal their bottles of religion pills, spirituality pills, and morality pills, and flush them all down the drain. The church, by and large, has drugged itself into thinking that proper human behavior is the key to its relationship with God. What preachers need to do is force it to go cold turkey with nothing by the word of the cross - and then be brave enough to stick around while it goes through the inevitable withdrawal symptoms. But preachers can’t be naughty or brave unless they’re free of their own need for the dope of acceptance. And they won’t be free of their need until they can trust the God who has already accepted them, in advance and dead as doornails, in Jesus.
I really enjoy preaching like this. Biblical inoculation is scary. Chris Tilling wrote an article about the Westboro "Baptist Church" who is preaching the opposite extreme. It's a stark contrast that has got a lot of sword wielding followers pretty angry. Thanks for pointing this out, Chris.
I think good preachers should be like bad kids. They ought to be naughty enough to tiptoe up on dozing congregations, steal their bottles of religion pills, spirituality pills, and morality pills, and flush them all down the drain. The church, by and large, has drugged itself into thinking that proper human behavior is the key to its relationship with God. What preachers need to do is force it to go cold turkey with nothing by the word of the cross - and then be brave enough to stick around while it goes through the inevitable withdrawal symptoms. But preachers can’t be naughty or brave unless they’re free of their own need for the dope of acceptance. And they won’t be free of their need until they can trust the God who has already accepted them, in advance and dead as doornails, in Jesus.
I really enjoy preaching like this. Biblical inoculation is scary. Chris Tilling wrote an article about the Westboro "Baptist Church" who is preaching the opposite extreme. It's a stark contrast that has got a lot of sword wielding followers pretty angry. Thanks for pointing this out, Chris.
Posted: Sunday - May 06, 2007 at 06:28 PM |
Distractions