Word: coffin
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...Coffin blames many ministers for making their sermons exhortations, instead of attempted acts of grace. "The curse of our pulpit is its bald moralism...
What should a sermon be? To Dr. Coffin, a sermon "exalts, God in Christ for worship that He may enter into personal fellowship with listeners." This is no figure of speech. Preaching is the essence of Protestantism. By hearing the Word preached, and receiving it with faith, Protestants get the Divine grace which Roman Catholics believe can come only through receiving Sacraments...
...true preaching is possible without the Bible. "It is no pulpit convention," writes Dr. Coffin, "which requires a text from Scripture. It is the effort to recapture for our messages today the supreme quality of revealing...
...sects, not in proper congregations affiliated with the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.' Yes. and that is perhaps one rea son why these fringe sects keep springing up in place after place." Along with the fringe sects (and the founders of Protestantism), Presbyterian Coffin believes that the Spirit may and must come to those who preach His Word and hear...
...Pitfalls & the Miracle. Even after a minister has mastered the fact that preaching should be an act of grace, Dr. Coffin admits, there are many technical pitfalls. Wide and averagely educated audiences must be held by simple, graphic language. ("A minister has to expurgate his vocabulary of ... words . . . such as 'expurgate.'") A good way to learn: try preaching to children or casual audiences. ("Nothing would be more educational for most ministers than to be asked to address chance audiences on street corners.") At the same time, warns Preacher Coffin, there are all too few pulpits today which...