Spurgeon on Communication

Recently a worship leader friend of mine, Mike Passaro at Summit Church, shared with me a thought from Spurgeon regarding the manner in which ministers communicate the truths of the Gospel. Though he wrote so many years ago to a culture much different than ours, Spurgeon’s indictment has remarkable application to the condition of our time. For worship leaders, pastors, and anyone who communicates the Gospel in some form or fashion, may we together be challenged by Spurgeon’s clarion call for clarity and cogency.

“Brethren, we should cultivate a clear style. When a man does not make me understand what he means, it is because he does not himself know what he means. An average hearer, who is unable to follow the course of thought of the preacher, ought not to worry himself, but to blame the preacher, whose business it is to make the matter plain. If you look down into a well, if it be empty it will appear to be very deep, but if there be water in it you will see its brightness. I believe that many ‘deep’ preachers are simply so because they are like dry wells with nothing whatever in them, except decaying leaves, a few stones, and perhaps a dead cat or two. If there be living water in your preaching it may be very deep, but the light of truth will give clearness to it. It is not enough to be so plain that you can be understood, you must speak so that you cannot be misunderstood.