The Life of A. W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God by James L. Snyder

Author:James L. Snyder [Snyder, James L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson), 1897-1963, Christian and Missionary Alliance—United States—Clergy—Biography
ISBN: 9781441267207
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2009-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Preaching Begins with Prayer

“True preaching always begins in prayer,” Tozer would tell the students. “Any sermon that does not originate in prayer is not a message from God no matter how learned the speaker. It does no good to make up sermons to preach. Preaching must be the present voice of God to a particular people.”

Tozer never gloried in his lack of formal education. “I believe,” he insisted, “a preacher must be as educated as he possibly can be.”

He likened the preacher to an artist. “An artist works in watercolors, oils, sandstone, gold, glass, marble. The preacher, on the other hand, works in the stuff called mankind. The artist has an idea of abstract beauty and he seeks to reproduce it in visible, concrete things. The preacher has Christ and tries to make Him visible in human lives. The artist has genius; the preacher has the Holy Spirit. The artist draws his inspiration from other artists; the preacher draws his inspiration in prayer alone with God. The artist’s tools are brushes, chisels, flame. The tools of the preacher are words. Like the artist, a preacher must master his tools. At first he will make awkward attempts, but if he keeps at it, he will become an expert.”

Every preacher, Tozer believed, must develop the habit of judicious reading.

“Never read a ‘good book’,” he cautioned. “There are many good books being published every year. The majority of them merely rehash what someone else has written. Go back to the classics and learn from them. Read some of the great Puritan authors and some of the mystics. Read and memorize good poetry. Observe how these writers express themselves.”

To develop verbal skill, Tozer offered these masters for study: John Bunyan for simplicity; Joseph Addison for clarity and elegance; John Milton for nobility and consistent elevation of thought; Charles Dickens for sprightliness (“start with A Christmas Carol”); Francis Bacon for conciseness and dignity. In addition, Tozer recommended Robert Louis Stevenson, John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle, Nathaniel Hawthorne and the poetry of Wordsworth, Bryant, Blake, Keats and Shelley.

“Become word conscious,” he would exhort. “Pay attention to words and the effect they have. Get and use a good dictionary. If you come across an unfamiliar word, look it up immediately and study it. In that way you are building your vocabulary all the time. Some would have you believe that a large vocabulary will cause you to speak over the heads of people. Actually, the opposite is the case. With a large vocabulary, you are able to be precise in what you say. Nothing takes the place of using the right word.”

One of the trademarks of Tozer’s preaching was his ability to have the right word always at his command.

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