Truett on Preaching

As we enter the weekend and no doubt many of you will be preaching, here is a word from George Truett. George W. Truett was one of the highly esteemed preachers in the SBC and beyond. He served as pastor of FBC Dallas from 1897 to his death in 1944. Brian Denker recently found this quote from Truett in a convention sermon. It is a fun quote as well as one which highlights the importance of true preaching.

“Verily Paul “magnified the ministry.” The most important work in all the world is the work of the pulpit. There can no substitute for the spoken word from a living pulpit. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Whatever the progress and triumphs of the schools of civilization, with all its multiform organizations, can never be any displacement of the work of the prophets of God. The halcyon days of Christianity have always been the days of the right kind of preaching. All the decadent days of Christianity have been the days of the wrong kind of preaching. The Christian pulpit cannot be what it ought to be, and what God designs, if it be without the right kind of preaching. The Christian pulpit cannot be what it ought to be, and what God designs, if it be without the right kind of men in the pulpit. The pulpit is not the place for men of anemic spirit; they had better stay out of it. It is not the place for prigs and fops and dandies and for men seeking selfish ends. The most robust and virile and masculine and heroic business that earth ever saw is the right kind of preaching.”

Convention Sermon: "What We Preach"
Text: 2 Corinthians 4:5
Source: Truett, George W. Sermons from Paul. Vol. 2, Truett Memorial Series, ed. by Powhatan W. James. (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1947), 13-31