I like what Duke U. theologian Stanley Hauerwas says about the need for truthful preaching. He writes:
"I suspect that the deepest enemy of truthful preaching in our time is not only the loss of confidence in the words we have been given, but also the lack of trust many who preach have that God will show up in the words we use."
"The worst betrayal of the task of theology comes when the theologian or preacher fears that the words they use are not necessary because the church is no longer understood to be necessary for a relationship with God. The result too often is to confuse sermonizing with entertainment or bombast."
- A Cross-Shattered Church: Reclaiming the Theological Heart of Preaching
