William Feather Quotes

An old minister explained the smudges on his sermon outlines by saying they were caused by sweat and tears. And without those two marks, a sermon is not a sermon.

I'd make a bad preacher.

Preaching on Sunday mornings is such a simple thing, and by complicating it, I think we all do ourselves and the audience a disservice. It is very simple. Here is the model: Make people feel like they need an answer to a question.

A sermon is a valuable thing now and so impressive when you do hear a good one - and there is a lot of failure in the attempt; it's a difficult form - is because it's so seldom true now that you hear people speak under circumstances where they assume they are obliged to speak seriously and in good faith, and the people who hear them are assumed to be listening seriously and in good faith.

Some clergymen make a motto, instead of a theme, of their texts.

People are drawn to preaching that is passionate and offered with conviction. Passion comes when the preacher has spent significant time with the text, and when God has spoken through the text in a way that addresses the preacher's life first.

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.

I do my best work when I feel conviction to say something through the character I play. Always I want to have integrity and not compromise that.

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.

My family has been around campaigns for a long time. It's something you really have to be sure that you alone want to do. Because if not, if you don't want to do it, that will just blow through the surface at some point, and people can tell. And when people can tell, it's all over.

Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe. I'm honest.

I don't really put my name to anything that I don't love and believe in, because there's no point.

I'm the same guy at that podium preaching to the people on every single song. I'm not doing a dance for you on another song. It's all a direct assault.

I take my role seriously as a pastor.

I was telling the truth. I feel like we got that point across.

I'm going to be as sincere as I can in delivering the message I think is right. If people agree, great, and if they don't, I did my best.

I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that's the way I am.

I have to go on being a priest and bishop, that is, to celebrate God and what God has done in Jesus, and to offer in God's name whatever I can discern of God's perspective on the world around - something which involves both challenge and comfort.

I deliver my Truth hot and hard.

A man must be himself convinced if he is to convince others. The prophet must be his own disciple, or he will make none. Enthusiasm is contagious: belief creates belief.

An orator is a man who says what he thinks and feels what he says.

In order to make a good speech you must have something to say and you have to believe it.

I'd never make something pointless that I don't believe in. I don't think I could do it.

You have to believe in what you do. Take something you truly believe in and go about it in an honest way.

Whether it's Neil Young or Johnny Rotten, a band has to have someone like that: someone who you listen to and know that he believes what he says.