Today's Expositor's Quote is from Geoffrey Thomas, pastor of Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales:
One of the great perils that face preachers . . .is the constant danger of lapsing into a purely cerebral form of proclamation, which falls exclusively upon the intellect. Men become obsessed with doctrine and end up as brain-oriented preachers. There is consequently a fearful impoverishment in their hearers emotionally, devotionally, and practically. Such pastors are men of books and not men of people; they know the doctrines, but they know nothing of the emotional side of religion. They set little store upon experience or upon constant fellowship and interaction with almighty God. It is one thing to explain the truth of Christianity to men and women; it is another thing to feel the overwhelming power of the sheer loveliness and enthrallment of Jesus Christ and communicate that dynamically to the whole person who listens so that there is a change of such dimensions that he loves Him with all his heart and soul and mind and strength.
Geoffrey Thomas, "Powerful Preaching," chapter 14 in The Preacher and Preaching, edited by Samuel T. Logan (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1986), p. 369.
[In American culture today, the more common peril for preachers is to preach in a way that is only emotional, in a way that lacks intellectual content. As we rightly avoid that peril, let us not go past the biblical balance and preach only to the brains of our congregations. May we touch both the mind and the heart, as we ourselves are overwhelmed both intellectually and emotionally by the greatness of our God - Coty]