Thoughts on preaching

Some preaching quotes I’ve read over the past few days, pointing in very different directions. I resonate with both of them, which is part of the tension I live with these days. From Bill Easum:

One of the hard pills most church leaders need to swallow and digest is the realization that preaching as we know it today was totally unknown until the fourth century. What we read about in the first ten chapters of Acts and see in the writings of the first few centuries depicts conversations more than preaching. What preaching was done was not done in churches but in the streets not behind a pulpit or in a church. If youíre relying on preaching to grow your church, much less advance your church, you are making a huge mistake. Preaching as we know it is usually to the choir and seldom is the actual catalyst for conversion.

Found through Chad Canipe:

Don’t let the pulpit drive you to the word, but let the word drive you to the pulpit. Prepare the preacher more than you prepare the sermon. (Tim Keller)