driscoll and piper

"A preacher cannot show that he himself is clever and that Jesus is mighty to save."

- james denny
as quoted by john piper to mark driscoll



I said that I would tell you one small concern. In my book on preaching I quote James Denny like this: "A preacher cannot show that he himself is clever and that Jesus is mighty to save." I said, that you have one of the more remarkable gifts for turning a pop-cultural phrase, that it could easily set a standard for overweening cleverness for others who do not have your passion for the truth. Most of the chapter titles in your books are clever turns of phrase. Thus the general tone seems to be one of clever speech. That's my yellow flag.

Here is the interesting (second) thing. A brother came to me this morning before I spoke and said, "You know, pastor John, Mark is clever with pop culture, you are clever with academic culture." I looked at him and said, "That is VERY perceptive and I receive it as a God-sent exhortation." So when I stood up to speak I narrated that exhortation to me in front of all the people and said, "So you can see that Mark and I are in this battle together. We both want to speak in a way that is NOT boring about the greatest things in the world and is not worn out and tired and hackneyed. It is a sin to bore people with God. So pray for us. The line is fine between choosing words to strike the soul with glory and strike a clever pose."