A preaching ministry is absolutely essential to the health and prosperity of a visible church. The pulpit is the place where the chief victories of the Gospel have always been won, and no Church has ever done much for the advancement of true religion in which the pulpit has been neglected. Would we know whether a minister is a truly apostolical man?
If he is, he will give the best of his attention to his sermons. He will labor and pray to make his preaching effective, and he will tell his congregation that he looks to preaching for the chief results on souls. The minister who exalts the sacraments, or forms of the Church, above preaching, may be a zealous, earnest, conscientious, and respectable minister; but his zeal is not according to knowledge. He is not a follower of the apostles.
Day by Day with J.C. Ryle, “Ministry (Preaching)”, [Ross-shire, UK: Christian Focus, 2004], 185.
3 comments:
I recently wrote a quick blog entitled, "Please make church boring" about the church trying so hard to be modern that they are rendering themselves useless. This was a really positive quote that I am going to append to that post. Thanks!
Hey Landon,
I appreciated your perspective in your post, "Please make church boring" -- in fact, I'm going to link to it for my post today.
Thanks!
Absolutely, thank you! I find it so interesting that as I have toured the country, and been to church after church as I play shows and move on, that I begin starving for a good solid sermon. A time of learning, where I get to dive into the word and think and grow. I get a lot from sermons online at this point, desiringgod.org and blogs such as your own, and I thank you for that. continue speaking truth!
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