The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock Quotes

“don’t sit on your patio in the high noon of your tranquility and make light of the huts that people build in the midnight of their desperation.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“If in reading the Bible you find justification for abusing, humiliating, disgracing, harming, or hurting, especially when it makes you feel better about yourself, you are absolutely wrong.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“It is not uncommon in the church for us to urge each other to witness to our faith and sometimes we do so as though it were easy to do. It is not. Our faith is so profoundly intimate and important that we draw our breath in pain to tell the story of our faith in God. And to find the appropriate word to speak even to a receptive mind is difficult. Especially if the opportunity that presents itself comes as a total surprise.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“Announcements are always difficult to hear. Nobody pays attention to announcements. The announcements about the church’s life put in the bulletin midweek, printed on the back of the worship bulletin on Sunday, read to you as though you couldn’t read by the worship leader or minister. And then included in the benediction, “Lord help the people to remember the fellowship dinner Wednesday night.” And then somebody at the door asked the minister, “Are we going to have the fellowship dinner?” I know it’s hard to listen to announcements. One reason is we hear them over and over and over again. If I wanted to make someone deaf, I would do it by repetition.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“I’m crucified between the sky of what I intend to be and the earth of my performance.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“Just because I’m a wren doesn’t mean I can’t preach an eagle message. Of course I can. Is that a lack of integrity if I preach something bigger than I can even feel, if I preach a message that I haven’t even grown to? That’s not a lack of integrity. That’s accepting the call. That’s what it is because there’s too much at stake to do otherwise.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock