On Preaching...

I just finished reading Speaking God's Words by Peter Adam for a seminar I'm taking in June at Southern. In it, he has this great quote from John MacArthur about how the church should treat her pastor:

Fling him into his office. Tear the ‘Office’ sign from the door and nail on the sign, ‘Study’. Take him off the mailing list. Lock him up with his books and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts and broken hearts and the lives of a superficial flock and a holy God.

When at long last he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a word from God. If he does not, then dismiss him. Tell him you can read the morning paper and digest the television commentaries, and think through the day’s superficial problems, and manage the community’s weary drives, and bless the sordid baked potatoes and green beans, ad infinitum, better than he can.

Command him not to come back until he’s read and reread, written and rewritten, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’