Whatever call a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.
– Charles Spurgeon –
Give Yourselves to Prayer and the Ministry of the Word – Robert Murray McCheyne
Give yourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. If you do not pray, God will probably lay you aside from your ministry, as He did me, to teach you to pray.
– Robert Murray McCheyne –
Prayer Must Be a Mighty Factor in Life and Ministry – EM Bounds
Every preacher who does not make prayer a mighty factor in his own life and ministry is weak as a factor in God’s work and is powerless to project God’s cause in this world.
– EM Bounds –
Satan Has Little Need to Fear Most Preaching – A. Reavis
Despite the atrociousness of it, Satan really does have “little cause to fear most preaching.” Most preaching in the modern church is completely devoid of unction. Pastors are too busy playing golf or racquetball to bother spending time on their knees. No wonder some pastors I’ve heard can more readily quote Dr. Laura then bible passages pertaining to prayer. It’s disastrous. Satan need not fear under those conditions.
– A. Reavis –
The High and Holy Calling of Work – Martin Luther
The farmer in the field, or the farmer’s wife in the farmhouse, if they are doing their work by faith for the glory of God, are fulfilling as high and holy a calling as the pastor in the pulpit.
– Martin Luther –
Don’t Preach Repentance Until You’ve Pledged Your Head – Joseph Parker
The man whose little sermon is “repent” sets himself against his age, and will for the time being be battered mercilessly by the age whose moral tone he challenges. There is but one end for such a man – “off with his head!” You had better not try to preach repentance until you have pledged your head to heaven.
– Joseph Parker –
Christians Are Cowards – Charles Finney
If Christians were not such cowards, and absolutely disobedient to this plain command of God… one thing would certainly come of it — either they would be murdered in the streets as martyrs, because men could not bear the intolerable presence of truth, or they would be speedily converted to God.
– Charles Finney –
Dead Men Preaching – Gilbert Tennent
For I am verily persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ; and the reason why congregations have been so dead is, because they have had dead men preaching to them.
– Gilbert Tennent –
Not Asked to Preach – John Wesley
From the journals of John Wesley:
- Sunday a.m., May 5 – Preached in St. Ann’s; was asked not to come back any more.
- Sunday p.m., May 5 – Preached at St. John’s; deacons said, ‘Get out and stay out.’
- Sunday a.m., May 12 – Preached at St. Jude’s; can’t go back there either.
- Sunday p.m., May 12 – Preached at St. George’s; kicked out again.
- Sunday a.m., May 19 – Preached at St. Somebody Else’s; deacons called a special meeting and said I couldn’t return.
- Sunday p.m., May 19 – Preached on the street; kicked off the street.
- Sunday a.m., May 26 – Preached out in a meadow; chased out of meadow when a bull was turned loose during the service.
- Sunday a.m., June 2 – Preached out at the edge of town; kicked off the highway.
- Sunday p.m., June 2 – Afternoon service, preached in pasture; 10,000 people came.
– John Wesley –