Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 7, “Cowardice.""It is easier to call a man a coward than to prove him one.""A man may be a coward without knowing it.""Surely no minister can be other than a coward unless strength be given him from above. All things conspire…
I’m writing this note from the guesthouse at the SIM Missionary Village in Sebring Florida, in the southern part of the state about an hour and a half south of Orlando. This is my third visit. I spoke here in 2004 on the recommendation of Calvary missionaries John and Anne Ockers. Marlene came with me on my second visit in January 2006. So fa…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 6, “The Foremost of the Demons.""It is not true, as some men think, that all clergymen are lazy, but it is true that they like other men are tempted, and alas, too many of them succumb."’Not infrequently a man will fuss and bustle over m…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 5,"Starts Good and Bad.""A bad start in a pastorate is disastrous. The blunders of the first few weeks may throw a shadow over many years.""When the minister goes into his new parish he ought to give himself at once to his supreme task, f…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 4, “Which Door?""It is well for a man not to be too heavily weighted with theories at the beginning of his career.""A man ought to preach not where he wants to preach but where he can preach.""But suppose a field is hard, sha…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 3, “The Man of Macedonia.""A student on emerging from the Seminary sometimes experiences a chilling surprise. The world does not seem glad that another laborer is now ready to enter the vineyard.""What shall the young man do? He cannot d…
*I’m writing this note at 11:45 PM on Friday night. In just a few hours I’ll be on my way to the SIM Missionary Village in Sebring, Florida. It’s a lovely spot established for missionaries who have returned to the States after 30 or 40 or 50 years on the mission field. I’m the speaker for their Bible conference that starts o…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 2, “A Mirror for Ministers.""Probably no other man in the town is subjected to such a constant stream of criticism as the minister, and possibly no other man profits so little by criticism as he.""Those who make the fiercest onslaughts o…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 1, “Wherefore All This.""Ministers as a body are I think the best men living on the earth.""But ministers to be as good as other classes of men must be better than they. No other set of men make such assumptions or bind themselves to suc…
In 1898 Charles Edward Jefferson became the pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle in Brooklyn, New York. He stayed as pastor for 33 years of fruitful growth and expanding ministry. He had the “longest run on Broadway” of any of the church’s pastors. During his time thousands of people packed the sanctuary every Sunday to hear him prea…