Culture Making and Preaching with Andy Crouch at Fuller

Fuller's Brehm Center hosted an evening "Preaching Summit" last night. It was interesting getting such a generationally diverse response to Crouch's observations of cultural change, though more often than not, the panel seemed resistant to acknowledge the truthfulness of his assessments. Still the group was a wealth of experience and wisdom for young people preparing to preach the gospel today.

Peter Storey was by far my favorite voice on the panel. I managed to catch him again this morning during a session on Prophetic Preaching for Clay Schmit's homiletics class. I'll try to have more from that session later.

Standout Quotes from the evening:

Renita Weems:
"Great preachers expose what was previously hidden."
"People change because of relationships, not eloquence."

Ken Fong:
Speaking of his experience volunteering in a drug clinic,
"I wish I had gotten out of the church earlier... to be with people stripped of pretense."
"People change when they face crisis. So we've been letting the gospel put them in crisis."

Peter Storey:
Speaking to the American church as a South African,
"Until you unwrap your gospel from the red white and blue you have nothing to say."
In response to Crouch's noting of the shift from Walter Cronkite to John Stuart as America's source for news,
"I have to say, I regard John Stuart as a prophet."
"What's in the sermon must be in the preacher first... Guard your devotional life... Who am I unless I have come from the presence [of God]?"