The reason many of us pastors keep returning to the same few quotes is that they are definitive for us. They so imbed themselves in our consciousness that they manage to define who we are. Somewhere I read--wish I could remember where--of a friend who accompanied Abraham Lincoln to church.
|
|
Afterwards, the friend asked how he had liked the sermon. The future president's answer was something like: "He may be a good man, but he's not a good preacher. A good preacher would have asked us to do something great, and he didn't."
Sometimes a preacher needs a comeuppance like that from a layperson--calling us back to reality, insisting we remember our calling, that we not get so caught up in the minutiae of our work that we forget to issue the clarion call to God and righteousness.
It might even be appropriate to call Lincoln not a layperson, since that implies he's an active member of a church other than the clergy, but an outsider. He never joined a church, claimed to have a deep reverence for God and Scripture, but always seemed to see no personal need for involvement in a local church. So when we analyze a critique of a preacher from him, it's coming more from the outside than within the body.
But this is not about Lincoln. It's about his comment, and his excellent statement that a good preacher calls on people to do great things.
I completely agree, and am betting most pastors would also.
Leave a comment