[Book Review] Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church
I just finished reading Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church by Matt Candler, Eric Geiger, and Josh Patterson. It is a solid overview of how the Gospel should shape and influence everything in the church from how we think, preach, worship, serve, do children and student ministry, and more.
Although most pastors would agree that Jesus is central to the Church, many pastors drift from their “first love” much like the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-5.
This was a great read that I highly recommend to all church leaders. It will challenge the way you think about the church. It is a call to all pastors to fight to reclaim the first love of the church – the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you haven’t read it yet, you should definitely pick it up.
Specifically focused on preaching, chapter 7 is titled “Preaching the Word.” Here are a few of my favorite preaching quotes:
“In His ultimate wisdom, God uses foolish men to speak the words of His wondrous salvation.”
“The role of the preacher is to dive into the text, mine the depths, and reveal the truth that is there in the Scripture.”
“The preacher should not feel as if he is carrying the burden of life change; he merely carries the burden of faithful exposition and the robust proclamation of the text at hand, trusting that God’s Word will never return void (Isa. 55:10–11).”
“The Word can heal the broken and break the proud. The Word can assure the weak and weaken the strong. It brings wisdom to the foolish and makes fools out of the wise.”
“the preacher needs to be like a sponge, soaking in the truths of the gospel himself first, and then being squeezed so that gospel realities can be allowed to spill over.”
“There is only one Hero in the Church, and it is not the preacher.”
“It would be foolish to pretend that the pulpit does not impact church culture. Everything from the content of the sermons, the style of delivery, the clothes one chooses to wear, and the presence or absence of a pulpit both reinforce and create culture.”
“The preacher owns the opportunity to assure the congregation that it is OK not to be OK—but that the gospel will not leave us there.”
“Flimsy sermons will create a flimsy flock.”
