Doctrine That Dances Quotes

“This moral conscience of doctrine insists that preachers be acquainted not only with the streets of gold in heaven but also with the streets of gloom in the ghetto. It unites the pulpit and the pavement, the sanctuary and the street, Bethlehem and Birmingham, the New Jerusalem and New Jersey.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“Doctrine offers a moral conscience to preaching that prevents preaching from giving all of its attention to the heights of heaven while ignoring the social inequities on earth.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“Our permanent residence should be within the atmosphere of worship.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“For the serious-minded preacher, homiletics in its truest sense is not the preparation and delivery of the sermon: it is the preparation and delivery of the preachers themselves.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“In response to René Descartes's dictum, Pentecostalism's dictum would in some respect be, “Sensuo ergo sum,” (I feel, therefore I am).”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“Cultivating the mind was the most significant pursuit. This war between the cranial (mind and understanding) and the cardiological (heart and emotions) continued for twenty centuries and is still an important issue in preaching in the twenty-first century.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“Consequently, the function of doctrinal preaching is to ferry the truths of the “was-ness” of the Word from the shore of the ancient text to the shore of the “is-ness” of our contemporary world.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“Preachers who would preach doctrinally must put their ears to the pavement of the text and synchronize the heartbeat of the text with the heartbeat of the doctrine so that the author's intention is clearly seen and heard.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“People who come to hear us on Sunday morning do not merely need more information about Bible facts; they need transformation.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“When the terrestrial trek is terminated and the celestial course is initiated, the “now-ness” of time will, in the words of the inimitable Dr. Gardner C. Taylor, fall exhausted at the feet of the “then-ness” of eternity.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“The operational definition of doctrinal preaching is the magnifying of Jesus Christ through the explanation and application of the basic truths of the Christian faith.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“I contend that the task of the doctrinal preacher is to serve as an escort who ushers the hearer into the presence of God through the proper and precise expounding of the Word of God. When this is done, the efforts of doctrinal preachers have reached their limits because they cannot transform the hearer. The hearer is left in the presence of the only One who can transform a human soul—Christ.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“Expository preaching is the communication of a biblical concept transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, then through him to his hearers.15”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“The church of Jesus Christ is often concerned about fanaticism; the greater concern should be about infanticide. Christians are experiencing spiritual immaturity and spiritual death. One of the reasons for this is that worshippers are being served sermonic snacks instead of the doctrinal meat of the Word of God. If doctrine is presented with joy and accuracy, the hearers will not only stand it, they will crave more of it.”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“Concerned about attitudes toward worship and practices in worship in the churches of his time, Søren Kierkegaard, a nineteenth-century Danish philosopher/theologian, compared what was taking place in the theater and what was happening in Christian worship. In a theater, actors, prompted by people offstage, perform for their audiences. To his dismay, Kierkegaard found that this theatrical model dominated the worship practices of many churches. A minister was viewed as the on-stage actor, God as the offstage prompter, and the congregation as the audience. Unfortunately, that understanding of worship remains as prevalent as it is wrong. Each ingredient of the theatrical model mentioned by Kierkegaard is an essential component in Christian worship. Crucial, though, is a proper identification of the role of each one. In authentic worship, the actor is, in fact, many actors and actresses—the members of the congregation. The prompter is the minister, if singular, or, if plural, all of the people who lead in worship (choir members, instrumentalists, soloists, readers, prayers, preachers). The audience is God. Always, without exception, the audience is God! If God is not the audience in any given service, Christian worship does not take place. If worship does occur and God is not the audience, all present participate in the sin of idolatry.3”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life

“Dorothy Sayers challenged the thought of many nay-sayers of her time who claimed that doctrinal preaching led to boredom and a lack of interest. She wrote: Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known as bad press. We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine—“dull dogma,” as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma is the drama.2”
― Robert Smith Jr., Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life