For preachers, clarity is a moral matter. It is not merely a question of rhetoric, but a matter of life and death. — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share Image
“Poorly prepared conclusions that wander about looking for an exit line leave a congregation looking toward the exit.” — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share Image
“So what? What difference does it make?” How should this concept be applied? Is the biblical writer applying his idea? Where does he develop it? Exhortations in the Scriptures grow out of the context. Some sermons resemble cut flowers: the admonition of the author is cut off from the truth that produced it. The imperatives are always connected to the… — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share
You will invest your life in something, or you will throw it away on nothing. — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share Image
“A series of different questions must be raised when trying to understand a story. A sampling of those questions might be the following: Who are the characters in the story and why did the author include them? Do the characters contrast with one another? How do these characters develop as the story develops? What does the setting contribute to the… — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share
“bland composite” of the congregation’s “congenial, ever helpful, ever ready to help boy scout; as the darling of the old ladies and as sufficiently reserved with the young ones; as the father image for the young people and a companion to lonely men; as the affable glad-hander at teas and civic club luncheons.”1 If that description pictures reality at all,… — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share
“Here is another thing that used to puzzle me. Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be… — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share
“If you start into a sentence without pinning down what you want to emphasize, you may end up stressing insignificant details. If you add too many dependent clauses, you complicate your sentences, and that makes them harder to understand and remember. Generally, style will be clearer if you package one thought in one sentence. For two thoughts use two sentences.… — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share
“Remember that you’re looking for the author’s ideas. Begin by stating in rough fashion what you think the writer is talking about—that is, his subject. Then try to determine what major assertion(s) the biblical writer is making about the subject, that is, the complement(s). If you cannot state a subject at this point, what is hindering you from doing so?… — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share
“What does this mean?” What has to be explained so that my listeners will understand the passage? Does the biblical writer explain his statements… — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share Image
“More thought is demanded but more accomplished if we set them up: “Written boldly into the Bible is this phrase . . .” “Paul… — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share Image
Ministers must read. We are required to read not as a luxury but as a necessity. — Haddon W. Robinson Copy Share Image
