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Get Lost Baldy. I Ain't Buying What You're Selling

"The preacher's personality cannot be eliminated from the preaching situation, and what he appears to be is a part of what he communicates--necessarily, inescapably, willy-nilly, and for better or for worse.  So the preacher must speak as one who himself stands under the authority of his message and knows the reality and power of which he speaks; otherwise the impact of his personality will reduce the credibility of his proclamation, just as a man's baldness would reduce the credibility of any sales pitch he might make as a purveyor of hair restorer.  The committed personality is in this sense integral to God's message, for God uses it to communicate his own reality as his messenger speaks. But for fullest awareness of the messenger's committedness we need to have him confront os in a 'live' preaching situation; 'canned' preaching on a tape, and 'stage' preaching on TV, and 'embalmed' preaching in the form of printed sermons are all unable to communicate this awareness to the same degree.  Thus the need fro preaching 'live' remains the great as it was nineteen centuries ago.  It is still supremely through preaching, that is, through the impact on us of the message and the messenger together, that God meets us, and makes Himself and His saving grace known to us."
J. I. Packer in The Preacher and Preaching, pages 16-17.

01.04.12 Update: Alison Krause said something similar in an interview she did with Tavis Smiley (I posted it on Twitter): "If you believe it, people respond to it."


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  1. Gage BrowningJanuary 19, 2012 at 10:54 AM

    Hair is a stumbling block to holiness...see Samson.

    ReplyDelete

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