Status Updates From Working the Angles: The Sha...

"Reading Scripture accurately and understandingly is one of the most difficult tasks under the sun. Gilbert Highest, the classicist, used to say that anyone who reads the Bible and isn't puzzled at least half the time doesn't have his mind on what he is doing."

“In 20th century America the prophetic pastor of action and the managerial pastor are the ministry role models; the prayerful pastor leading people in worship draws, at best, a yawn.”

“People who imitate the preaching and moral action of the prophets without also imitating the prophets’ deep praying and worship so evident in the Psalms are an embarrassment to the faith and an encumbrance to the church.”

“I don’t know if any other profession in which it is guite as easy to fake it as in ours. By adopting a reverential demeanor, cultivating a stained-glass voice, slipping occasional words like ‘eschatology’ into conversation and heilgeschichte into our discourse… we are trusted, without any questions asked, as stewards of the mysteries.”

“It is much more fun to watch someone going to the moon than to make the machine that gets him there. It is much more challenging to deliver a sermon than to develop the person who preaches it.” 17–18 😮‍💨