Preaching Quotes

“But we have arrived at a glistening, smug day when nobody much sins, and those that do are prone to call it something else.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Application is what gets the Sermon off the Mount, and down in the valley where the toilers live out their days.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“If anybody is left behind in a congregation of a thousand, the preacher has not preached well.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Donald Coggan’s wisdom: “When true preaching takes place, the main actor is not the preacher, nor the congregation, but the Holy Spirit.”15”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“John Hines said, “Preaching is effective as long as the preacher expects something to happen—not because of the sermon, not even because of the preacher, but because of God.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“When it comes to adding authority to the sermon, the Bible is the most powerful way to comment on what the Bible has to say.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Long ago I learned that more than half of any pastor’s congregation come to church broken and in the grip of some life issue that is eating at their wellbeing.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Passion is the soul of intensity. The speaker who truly loves God may or may not lead others to believe it, but the speaker who doesn’t is only a philosopher whose ideas are too bland to be important.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Without application, preaching is at best a lecture and at worst entertainment.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Axiom #3: When told how to apply sermons specifically, most people over-congratulate themselves on how biblically they already live while thinking of others who could really use the sermon.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“I will also argue that metaphor and story is not only a legitimate form of exposition but is a preferred style of exposition mostly because it is so much more memorable than mere precepts-driven homiletics.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“When asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus in effect does not say, “Let me give you three Hebrew roots on the word neighbor.” What he does say is, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. . . .”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Most of these super-sovereigns feel that God can comment if he wants to, but God must avoid getting loud. While God is welcome to his opinions, he is only one voice, and he doesn’t get extra points just for being God. The unstudied opinionated are prone to say, even to God, “Yes, but here’s what I think.” In such a world, classic apologetics has lost much of its force.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“To get the job done preaching must be committed to two goals: first it should be passionate and second, fascinating.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Great worship and great sermons contain a wonderful impending, a sense of “watch out, here it comes.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Edward Markquart, a brilliant homoletician, wrote: “People want their preachers to be authentic human beings . . . who experience the same feelings and struggles as the laity, who do not hide behind the role of reverend so and so.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Anytime our sermons become confessional, they become more powerful.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“It is the eleventh Beatitude that reads, “Blessed are those whose love of books and their Greek New Testaments has married their need to live in union with Christ.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Those who know the least about theology and the Bible often out-preach—or at least out-fascinate—those who are well studied.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Intensity is both the communicator’s best friend and worst enemy. To really hold an audience, they must sense that what you are saying is important, at least to you.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Great sermon theses are powerful acids that etch themselves on the “have-tos” of the speaker. They are rarely written down. They don’t need to be. They have already been written boldly on the preacher’s soul.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Screaming our affirmations can make us sound like we’re in doubt”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“A single sermon is not likely to effect much change.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Most people would rather listen to sermons than act on them.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Once people know what the Bible says, their next questions are: So what? How to? Where do I start?”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Preachers must always be thinking of the application all the time they are dispensing information.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Where You Go Hereafter Depends upon What You Go After Here”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Preachers, however eloquent they are, are rarely heard as readily as pastors. After all, shepherds are sheep lovers, and the sheep are dependent upon their shepherds, who love them even before they listen.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“The best of sermons have never been a belch of information or piety.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition

“Still, most people need more information on how to become conformed to the image of Christ than they do on how to be converted.”
― Calvin Miller, Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition