Our third installment in this ongoing series of posts relating to integrity in the pulpit.

Integrity with Self — Questions About Authenticity

Questions & Queries:

  • Do we preach better than we live?
  • Do we preach better than we believe?
  • How does integrity come into play when we know we must preach a passage we know we’ve been struggling to live personally?
  • How does integrity come into play when we know we must preach a truth that we’ve been having quiet, nagging, doubt-filled questions about?
  • How does this relate to questions of theology we simply are not certain about? (e.g., timing of the rapture)
  • How do you handle discovering you’ve said something wrong in a sermon?

Notable & Quotable:

  • “I traveled with him in conventions and what he preached he lived . . . He was the greatest heart preacher I ever listened to.  He preached out of his own rich dealings with God.”  (Paul Rader speaking of A.B. Simpson)[i]
  • “It takes a tremendous amount of relationship to God for a man to be what he is.”[ii]

[i] Larsen, David L., The Company of the Preachers(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1998), 659.

[ii] Chambers, Oswald, quoted in Oswald Chambers: The Best From All His Books (Nashville:Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1987), 135.