Fred B. Craddock > Quotes

“Boredom is a form of evil; perhaps one of Kierkegaard's characters was more correct when he said, "Boredom is the root of all evil." Boredom is a preview of death, if not itself a form of death, and when trapped in prolonged boredom, even the most saintly of us will hope for, pray for, or even engineer relief, however demonic.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Overhearing the Gospel: Revised and Expanded Edition

“don’t sit on your patio in the high noon of your tranquility and make light of the huts that people build in the midnight of their desperation.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“It is important to understand that this inclusive embrace of all people was was not to call attention to itself. No flags were to go up:"Look who joined our church!" When we are doing what Christ calls us to do, who hangs a banner,who boast as though some merit is earned?

Cherry Log Christian Church is no rags to riches story: we are both rags and riches. This church is not an experiment in anything;it is a church and has been a church since a few lost souls joined hearts and hands and said "Yes." God has favored us with numerical growth, but God's favor is even more evident in the delight , the excitement,the expectations of those who worship here, who enjoy friendship here, who gather to stir one another to be servants of the compasionate Christ.
Amazing ? Yes.
Surprising? Not really.”
― Fred B. Craddock , Cherry Log Christian Church -The first Ten Years

“If in reading the Bible you find justification for abusing, humiliating, disgracing, harming, or hurting, especially when it makes you feel better about yourself, you are absolutely wrong.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“Learning to preach is difficult because preaching is difficult.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Preaching

“I’m crucified between the sky of what I intend to be and the earth of my performance.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“If there is a disease in the preaching that I hear most often, it’s not that what the minister says is wrong. It’s that it is just too small.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Craddock on the Craft of Preaching

“It is not uncommon in the church for us to urge each other to witness to our faith and sometimes we do so as though it were easy to do. It is not. Our faith is so profoundly intimate and important that we draw our breath in pain to tell the story of our faith in God. And to find the appropriate word to speak even to a receptive mind is difficult. Especially if the opportunity that presents itself comes as a total surprise.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“Art is not a gift which a few people are given, but rather it is a gift which most people throw away.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Overhearing the Gospel: Revised and Expanded Edition

“Announcements are always difficult to hear. Nobody pays attention to announcements. The announcements about the church’s life put in the bulletin midweek, printed on the back of the worship bulletin on Sunday, read to you as though you couldn’t read by the worship leader or minister. And then included in the benediction, “Lord help the people to remember the fellowship dinner Wednesday night.” And then somebody at the door asked the minister, “Are we going to have the fellowship dinner?” I know it’s hard to listen to announcements. One reason is we hear them over and over and over again. If I wanted to make someone deaf, I would do it by repetition.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“Just because I’m a wren doesn’t mean I can’t preach an eagle message. Of course I can. Is that a lack of integrity if I preach something bigger than I can even feel, if I preach a message that I haven’t even grown to? That’s not a lack of integrity. That’s accepting the call. That’s what it is because there’s too much at stake to do otherwise.”
― Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock

“Preaching is the concerted engagement of one’s faculties of body, mind, and spirit.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Preaching

“No one can increase the volume in the pulpit to such a level as to muffle the echo of lost convictions.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Preaching

“The first is that learning to preach is difficult, and the difficulty is not greatly relieved by having a skilled instructor or by the discovery that one seems to be naturally a “good talker.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Preaching

“The surest way to stop growing is to stop reading.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Craddock on the Craft of Preaching

“Passion makes one persuasive.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Preaching

“Temptations are a compliment to our power, not our weakness.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Craddock on the Craft of Preaching

“If the stories of our faith are such that you’re too young to remember them, then you are not old enough to preach.”
― Fred B. Craddock, Craddock on the Craft of Preaching